By Ruiti He
Children ages 12-16 are now able to get the jab in Australia. Their country has got the vaccine green lighted by their country’s drug regulator. The TGA (Therapeutic Goods Administration) approved Pfizer’s application. On the application, it was requested that the vaccine was available to kids aged 12-16 to get the Pfizer’s vaccine. A health administrator had said “Protecting children would be an important and welcome additional stop in the national vaccination program.”
“Significantly we planned for this outcome and acquired the vaccines in the event of eligibility,” Health administrator Greg Hunt said.
Australia’s Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation is now thinking about how citizens over the age of 12 will be in the rollout. Australia’s government is sure that the organization will be able to quickly teach approval for the kids with health conditions within a few days while allowing children that are 12-16 will likely take a month at minimum.
Mr. Hunt had said that the vaccines could be passed out to schools to give to their students. Children could be vaccinated through vaccination centres and or GP clinics.
Pressure has been on protecting the high-school aged citizens from Coronavirus that has been rising amid a spate of cases at schools. The TGA has given provisional approval for the vaccine in the beginning of the year but up till now has only been approved for people older than 16. Around the world regulators have been on different sides of whether the Pfizer vaccine should be given to those under 16 years.
The US, on the other hand, has been vaccinating citizens as young as 12 for months with the president announcing that on the twenty-first of July, he would be sure that America would be able to begin jabbing even younger children as early as September.
UK’s equivalent to the ATAGI however, has not yet approved the Pfizer vaccine to those between the ages 12 and 16. Instead of that, they have allowed it for the same children 12-15 that ATAGI is expected to quickly move on - those with severe neurodisabilities, Down’s syndrome, immunosuppression, and multiple or severe learning disabilities.
As of now, Pfizer is the only company that has a vaccine that is approved for use in Australia and to have applied for a license to jab kids as young as 12. But in the US, both types of shots are taking trials of their vaccines for the use for children under 12. Results are said to be expected this year.
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