Children between the ages of six months and four years can now be vaccinated against COVID-19, and although pharmacists cannot be the ones to administer it, they insist on making sure children are protected.
Pharmasave’s Caitlin Giercke says vaccines for this age group are nothing new, with vaccines for young children available for measles, mumps, rubella, varicella (chicken pox) and others . He mentions that normally pharmacies are not even allowed to administer vaccine doses to children under the age of seven, but the government made an exception for COVID-19.
“This was to allow more access to these COVID vaccines for children,” says Giercke. “Unfortunately, just because of training limitations and just because of the risk of only monitoring post-vaccination, it is safer for children to be vaccinated in a clinical setting through the Portage Clinic.”
He adds that vaccinating someone so young is simply something that pharmacists are not trained to do. Giercke says the vaccine made available to young children is the Moderna vaccine, which is an mRNA vaccine.
“For this age group, two doses are recommended,” explains Giercke. “The doses should also be eight weeks apart.”
Giercke hopes people will stay smart and continue to try to stop the spread of COVID-19.