Children’s vaccinations key to avoiding prolonged isolation and repeat testing

Avoiding lengthy quarantine and isolation periods – and the knock-on impact on children’s school and social lives – along with removing the necessity for repeated lateral flow tests are among the top reasons for parents in Cayman to consider vaccinating their 5-to-11 year olds, according to two local paediatricians.

Integra Healthcare’s Dr. Siobhan Jaques and Dr. Sara Watkin stated that the availability of the vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 would help to remove some of these concerns from family life. The two doctors made those comments when they appeared on the Compass and Rooster 101‘s news review show ‘Beyond The Headlines‘ last week.

It comes as Public Health confirmed to the Compass that, as of Monday evening, 137 children in the 5-to-11 age range have been vaccinated thus far.

Watkin stressed there were other benefits, too, including allowing children to avoid mask-wearing and to travel safely overseas and reconnect with family abroad, whom they may not have seen for several years.

“Many of our children have not left this Island for over two years, they’ve not seen their elderly grandparents. Again, vaccinating the children will allow parents to feel they can safely take their children overseas to visit their elderly relatives,” Watkin said.

She cautioned that we don’t yet know if there could be another wave of the virus, which may prove a more serious threat to children. Getting vaccinated, she said, was the best way to ensure the whole family is protected.

But isn’t the virus mild for children?

The doctors acknowledged there may be reticence among some parents to consider vaccinating their children because the virus has, so far, posed much less of a risk to children than adults.

Additionally, some believe their children have natural immunity, having already had the virus, as a result of Cayman’s widespread community transmission. An outbreak of the virus at George Town Primary School in September last year was one of the first significant incidences of community transmission in Cayman since the pandemic began.

Watkin emphasised that because immunity to COVID-19 will wane over time, vaccination is still the best way to ensure children’s long-term protection.

She advised, given there is no universally-accepted guidance on how long you might wait to vaccinate a child who has had the virus, that parents of children aged between 5 and 11 who are considered low risk, should wait 12 weeks after infection before they get the jab.

“That very much fits with the interval between the two doses of the vaccine,” she explained.

Serious side effects ‘very rare’

Jaques stressed parents in Cayman should look to the number of children across the world who have already been vaccinated, who have rarely experienced serious side effects, including over 8 million who have already been vaccinated in the US.

“The vaccine is very well tolerated,” Jaques said, although “there have been some minor side effects to do with pain at the injection site… maybe a little bit of muscle ache, but very rarely anything more serious than that. And this has been shown to have quite a minor impact on education, maybe a day off school after the vaccine, something like that, but generally it’s been very well tolerated”.

For 12-to-16 year olds, she said, myocarditis – which is an “extremely rare” inflammation of the heart muscle – has been reported in fewer than two per million cases in the US.

“This has been shown to be less of a problem when the space between the vaccine doses is at least 12 weeks,” she said, advising that adhering to that schedule will “[minimise] that risk even further”.

Both doctors also stressed that the COVID-19 vaccine should not disrupt parents from ensuring their children are up-to-date with all regular childhood vaccinations.

Expanding outreach

Responding to Compass queries about the uptake of the children’s vaccine so far, Public Health stated that the first two clinics had been exclusively for those in that age group deemed to be at-risk.

“We expect to see an uptake now that it is open to all children ages 5-11,” a spokesperson for the department stated.

The spokesperson added that there was a planned expansion of outreach, to include schools, which would also include partnering with private physicians to administer the vaccine.

“While we are not currently concerned about vaccines being wasted, we are still urging parents to have their children immunised against COVID-19,” the spokesperson said.

Cayman’s latest COVID-19 vaccination schedule, including information about vaccinating 5-to-11 year olds can be found here. 

Parents and guardians can book their children for vaccinations by calling the Public Health Clinic (Monday to Friday, 8:30am-3pm) at 926-8152 or 926-8733 (Grand Cayman) or 244-7643 (Sister Islands).