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The clearance by the medical experts for children of 16 and 17 to be vaccinated against Covid-19 will come as relief to many sixth formers, their parents and their schools and steps now need to be taken to turn the instruction to vaccination units into practice.
The clearance of Sinovac for this age group follows the path that all vaccines were cleared. The Medicines Control Authority basically has the final word on safety and efficacy, and in the case of vaccines will be looking at results from other countries as well as its own statistics.
This was the process used in previous approvals. We started with approval for a number of vaccines for healthy adults. As the results of trials came through this permission was extended to the old and to those with underlying medical complications, both of whom needed maximum protection from Covid-19.
While everyone was almost certain that the vaccines used in Zimbabwe for adults would be safe for children, it is pleasant to know that the experts were not willing to take any risks and wanted to move from almost certain to totally certain. This they have done. Paediatricians, who specialise in the growing bodies of children then added their recommendations that all in this age group should be vaccinated with the vaccine known definitely to be safe.
Now further research is in place to see if younger teenagers can be vaccinated, again with everyone pretty sure they can but with the rules being followed to ensure that there are no hidden complications. This is how vaccines against other diseases were cleared in years past, to the extent that we now routinely vaccinate babies and toddlers against a whole range of once killer diseases.
If the world needs to live with Covid-19, and regrettably there is no certainty yet that the virus can be sent into extinction, we will be seeing the process of vaccine development and approval continuing until vaccines that work on toddlers join the list of those that are routinely dispensed to that age group.
Meanwhile, with the children aged 16 and 17 now cleared for vaccination, we need to get them protected fast. Most of the infections we still see in Zimbabwe, in this space between the third wave that we beat back and the fourth wave that our experts fear could strike at any time, come from schools. Even just protecting the sixth forms will be a big help.
The argument for a full a vaccination programme as possible for this age group are two-fold. First these children are about the write what may be the most important examination of their life. The results will determine what sort of tertiary education they can pursue and what sort of careers will be open to them. They need to be fit and healthy when they write.
Besides this individual requirement there is the social requirement, as there is in all places where people have to gather. It would be best if all in a senior class were vaccinated to give maximum protection to each other, and having a firebreak across the senior forms in a school when infection strikes will, as with all firebreaks, help to bring the outbreak under control very quickly.
While parents of day pupils can make arrangements to get their older children to a clinic or other vaccination centre for their jabs, perhaps on Saturdays, boarding pupils who have, for all practical purposes, been locked up in their schools until the term ends, need other arrangements. And many in this age group are boarders.
So school heads now need to make the arrangements for a vaccination team to come to the school.
The heads will have all the necessary details, such as the ages, birth certificate details, which give the national ID number as well as the age, and can sort out parental permissions. Normally in this sort of programme parents are informed that vaccinations are taking place and can object, with their silence implying approval.
While boarders must be vaccinated by visiting teams, most day pupils will find it far more convenient to line up as their classes are called to get their shots, so the heads can ask the visiting team their bring in to do the lot.
At the same time we need to push adults to line up. With the third wave beaten back, although we still see 250 to 350 new infections each week and a handful of deaths, many see no urgency to lining up for their jabs and we are dispensing only a little over 100 000 doses a week. At this rate it will take us many months before we have 10 million people full vaccinated, what experts have set as the target to obtain herd immunity.
So far only just over 3,32 million people have entered the programme with at least one jab and only just over 2,6 million have had both and are fully vaccinated.
Out of all the millions of doses we have seen land in Zimbabwe only 5,925 million have been dispensed. So there is no shortage of vaccine and the systems set up by the Ministry of Health and Child Care can easily handle five times as many people each week.
This breathing space between the third wave and what foresee as a fourth wave at some stage is an ideal time to get into line and be protected.
With high rates of vaccination the fourth wave, when it hits, could just be a modest blip on the graphs. But for that to happen the numbers vaccinated have to be large enough to provide effective firebreaks, rather than just have as we have at the moment little islands of the vaccinated.
Excuses become weaker every day, and the there is now really no reason for any adult, or any older children, to skip their shots.
Online Reporter