Delaying vaccination for kids is a dangerous gamble, epidemiologist warns

An infection control epidemiologist is issuing astark warning to parents who are holding off on having their kids vaccinated against COVID-19: Don't underestimate Omicron.

With a possible return to in-school learning just weeks away, only 52.2 per cent of New Brunswick children aged5 to 11 had received a first dose as of Tuesday, and pharmacists have seen a slower than expected demand for first shots here than in many other provinces.

Epidemiologist Colin Furness thinks that's because people think COVID-19, and Omicron in particular, is "just the sniffles."

That's a widely held and potentially dangerous belief, he said, and one that needs to change.

• Pharmacists see slower-than-expected demand for COVID vaccine for kids 5 to 11

"This is a scary virus" that wreaks invisible but serious damage, Furnesssaid in an interview with CBC News on Tuesday.

"What we have to understand is while the sniffles are going on, injury to the brain ...is happening, heart muscle damage is happening and lung damage is happening and autoimmune disease is happening," he said.

"So in kids, we have to be really worried. In unvaccinated kids, we have to be extremely worried."

Furness noted thatunvaccinated children under age five represent the fast-growing group of hospitalizations worldwide.

"That's different with Omicron than it has been in the past," he said. "So we need to look really carefully what this disease is doing, not just the sniffles, but in the brain and in the organs."

Shuttering schools 'prudent' for now

New Brunswick's lagging rate of vaccination for the 5-to-11 age group is particularly concerning given the approaching resumption of in-school learning, he said.

Furness said he thinks the province's decision to keep kids out of school until at least Jan. 31 was a "prudent" one, but that delaying it even further might be better.

"I'm not sure end of January is the correct date," he said.

"It really depends on getting past the peak, at which point cases will drop very quickly, and ensuring that we've got safety measures in schools ...

"But I do support delaying opening until we're past that peak."

Once schools do reopen, the antiviral drug Paxlovid, developed by Pfizer and approved Monday by Health Canada, will be a game-changer, he said.

• Health Canada approves Pfizer's COVID-19 antiviral treatment

"It's going to allow us to keep schools open," Furness said. "It doesn't stop transmission, doesn't stop people from getting sick, but it does stop people from progressing to the really serious respiratory phase where they might need ventilation and may not survive that."

But while it will allow us to keep schools open, it will not be a substitute for vaccination and it isn't going to help us get through the current wave of cases, he said.

"With this wave, what we need to do is wait for it to pass quickly, to have precautions in place and social distancing in place" and keep schools closed until this wave has passed.

"That's the most important thing," Furness said. "Drugs aren't going to help us get there. We have to do that on our own, through those sorts of measures and through vaccination."