“It was something we’ve been waiting for,” mom Kaleigh Rosenblat said in her backyard Wednesday, hours after Manitoba announced it was expanding vaccine eligibility to include children under five. Health Canada approved a two-dose Moderna vaccine for children ages six months to four years last week — which includes her sons, Reuben and Herschel. The dose is about a quarter of the size of the adult dose. Manitoba’s initial rollout of its youngest children will be limited to Indigenous children and those with certain conditions when appointments open Monday. However, eligibility will be expanded to include more children in the age group once more vaccines are delivered in the province, said provincial public health chief Dr. Brent Roussin. Rosenblat said her children have already contracted COVID-19 and the oldest, Eloise, has already been vaccinated. But she is happy that her two youngest are hoping to have extra immunity to the disease before they go back to school in September. “Even just one dose will help me feel a little more comfortable. We were sending them to school anyway, but I think this just reduces the risk of them having a bad reaction or a severe reaction,” she said. . But that’s not necessarily how every parent will react. And it’s important that public health communication stays on top of questions families may have about vaccinating their younger children against COVID-19, said Michelle Driedger, a professor in the department of community health sciences at the University of Manitoba. in Winnipeg. “Parents aren’t cavaliers when it comes to decisions for their children, are they?” Dreeder said. “We have to be creative in our approaches because it’s not one size fits all [situation].” He said that in general, the kind of information parents want to see when making decisions about their children is more detailed than the level of information they would accept to make a decision for themselves. This means that public health messages must go beyond simply telling parents how safe and effective vaccines are. It also needs to explain things like how rare an adverse reaction to a vaccine might be or how it compares to a child’s risk of a serious outcome after contracting COVID-19, he said. Michelle Driedger is a professor in the community health sciences department at the U of M, focusing on public and health risk communication, risk perception, and knowledge translation under uncertain conditions. (Submitted by Michelle Driedger) “Not as a scare tactic, but certainly as something to help … contextualize the different risks we face,” Driedger said. He said identifying and removing the barriers parents still face to vaccinating their children is also critical. “If you make things more accessible, then uptake is greater,” Driedger said. “And if you help address some of those barriers that people might face in accessing any public health program, whether it’s transportation or just feeling comfortable in a space, those are important issues in public health delivery for things like vaccines.” It’s common for parents to be more concerned about health interventions like vaccines for younger children “because they feel so fragile,” said Devon Greyson, an assistant professor at the University of British Columbia’s School of Population and Health in Vancouver. “But in this case, I think some really good communication and listening and responding to parents’ concerns can really help alleviate those concerns because babies are so well equipped to develop immunity through vaccination,” she said. Grayson, who has studied vaccination reluctance. Communicating the potential risks of getting infected with COVID-19 in children — such as multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children the long COVID — is also important to help parents get the full picture when deciding whether to vaccinate their children, Grayson said. “Although the risk of serious harm to children from COVID is low, it is not non-existent. And it is certainly much higher than any risk from the vaccines we have in Canada,” they said. “So I would try to reassure them by looking at the rare but very serious risks that we can protect against with this vaccine.” Building trust with parents is another key part of creating a space where they feel comfortable enough to ask the questions they have about the vaccine, Grayson said. And that can happen in a number of ways, including reaching out to family doctors, community leaders and others to help share reliable information and build vaccine confidence, they said. But perhaps most important is to have open, honest conversations about the roots of their hesitancy around vaccination, Grayson said. Devon Grayson is an assistant professor in the School of Population and Health at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. (Submitted by Devon Greyson) “For anyone talking to parents who have doubts or concerns, [it’s important] remember not to make parents feel embarrassed or alienated about it… It’s normal and common to be concerned and want to protect your babies,” they said. “We understand that people have questions. So being respectful and, you know, being kind to parents’ questions, I think is a great way to build relationships and build trust.”
