Vaccines for children put some parents to the test

-some see protection but fears persist

“We need the vaccines for our safety…,” says Canje, Berbice resident Hakila Husain. “I feel like the vaccine is just like the BCG vaccines these kids had when they born. Children used to get vaccines since they small. By now they [scientists] should know what they doing. My children definitely have to get the vaccines because you don’t know when this disease will done,” she adds.

Husain, who has four children, including two, ages 15 and 17 years old, who will be eligible for the Pfizer vaccine that the government plans to make available to those who are 12 years and older in the public school system.

Guyana is awaiting a consignment of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines, deemed safe and effective by the World Health Organisation’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization (SAGE), for administration to children who are 12 years and older. The vaccine, which requires two doses, 21 days apart, for the child to be considered fully immunized, is already in use in North America, Europe, Brazil and Trinidad and Tobago. Jamaica is due to begin its rollout to children 12 years and older from this weekend.

With vaccines secured and expected to arrive next month, the government has begun sending out letters seeking parental consent to vaccinate students, many of whom have been out of physical classrooms for over a year. A letter sent to parents/guardians explains, “The data collected and reviewed thus far by the Ministry of Education indicates that there is a high degree of learning loss taking place among learners who are out of school. Added to this, given we are to lose another school year, we may not be in a position to reverse the damage that will be done. However, we now can safely get your child back into the classroom as quickly as possible, once parental consent is given for him/her to be vaccinated.”

According to the letter, the vaccine will prevent a child from becoming very ill or hospitalized should they contract the virus, which continues to spread with the emergence of variants, such as Delta, that are more transmissible.

Last month, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony disclosed that over 1,500 children between one-month and fourteen-years-old had been infected with COVID-19 in Guyana since the start of the pandemic. Of that number, 287 were children between one-month and four-years-old, 524 between five and nine years old and 756 between ten to fourteen-years-old. At least three teens with the virus have died. 

Hussain encourages parents to get vaccinated and also have their children immunized so that work and school lives can return to some normalcy. “My kids have to go to school. We have to get the vaccine and the card just like when we had to take the yellow fever vaccine and get the card when we were going to Suriname at one time,” she said.

Both she and her husband have received their first dose of the Sputnik V vaccine but are still awaiting their second dose. They should have received it in July, but it has not yet become available to them.

Husain said that at this point in time she is not worried about the side effects, but confided that when the first batch of vaccines arrived in Guyana, they were skeptical and waited to see the results from the frontline workers and the elders in her area who had received them, before she and her husband decided.

Husain shared that many of the residents in her area have been vaccinated and they have been saying they will have their children vaccinated as well.

Like Husain, Geeta Sahadeo of Spring Garden, Essequibo Coast has been vaccinated. Her husband, she said, and their adult children have also been fully immunized. Her 17-year-old daughter is the only member of the family who has not yet received the jab.

According to the parent, the side effects of the vaccine were pain and swelling of the vaccination site and mild fever, which occurred in the first 24 hours and by the third day, they were feeling better.

While her daughter may get vaccinated as she may want to go off to university, Sahadeo has a bit of skepticism now, she said, due to the fact that nurses at two of the health centres (names mentioned) along the Essequibo Coast are not immunized. By the time she and the other members of the family had theirs back in April, she assumed that all frontline workers had been vaccinated already and never really second-guessed the vaccines.

She shared that she visited the health centre recently and was asked by the security guard there to produce her COVID immunization card before she could enter the compound. She then realized that while she could enter, there were nurses who were not immunized who were locked out.

That the same nurses who were vaccinating residents in the area chose not to be vaccinated themselves has made her question what harm the vaccine could be doing.

For other parents, it was the fact that they had mild side effects that helped them decide to consent for their children to have the vaccine also. Tinisha Rodrigues, of Kuru Kururu, had a few mild side effects after getting vaccinated against COVID-19. Rodrigues plans to ensure that her 13-year-old daughter is also vaccinated as government moves to inoculate students who are 12 and over in the public school system.

The woman said that she also talked with her daughter, who is not worried and who will be receiving her vaccine as soon as it becomes available.

What she stands strongly against, however, is the vaccine being mandatory. Rodrigues said more information on the vaccines, their side effects as well as facts on immunized people who still contracted the virus should be shared. She believes that if there is a clearer picture of this, people could be easily persuaded to be immunized.

‘I feel scared’

Although the government’s national vaccination campaign has seen around 60% of the adult population get first doses of a vaccine, with just over 30% being fully immunised by receiving both doses, there continues to be significant hesitancy. Not surprisingly, vaccine hesitant parents, are resistant to the idea of vaccinating their children against COVID-19 as well.

Veronica James, of Canal Number Two, West Bank Demerara, said one of her biggest concerns was that the vaccines will not prevent COVID. The mother of two boys — her older son is 12 years old and eligible for the vaccine — said she will not be signing the consent form. She shared that both boys had been fully immunized prior to starting nursery school, but was quick to add that those vaccines were given as preventative measures against other diseases. She said for her to consent to her older son being inoculated now, the vaccine would have to be able to prevent the virus.

James has not taken the COVID vaccine herself.

“I feel scared. I’m still waiting to see what’s going to happen as it relates to the [effects] of the vaccines and trying to get as much information as I can,” she said. She added that she has been hearing stories of people being severely affected after being vaccinated. She also questioned why the government was pushing the vaccines when many health workers were against being vaccinated.

James added that while health authorities are saying that the vaccine will prevent individuals from becoming “very ill,” she does not believe that the same goes for someone whose immune system is compromised. James said that none of her family members have contracted the virus, while pointing out that they have been following the COVID guidelines as it relates to social distancing, wearing their face masks and sanitizing.

Asked if school reopens in September whether her boys will be turning out to school, James said it was not likely.

West Bank Demerara parent Vanessa Venture, who is a teacher and has been immunized against the virus, also said she will not be consenting to her 15-year-old son being inoculated. Nonetheless, she is hopeful that her son will be returning to school come September as he will be starting the 11th grade and preparing to write the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) Examination.

Venture has received both her first and second doses of Sputnik V. She noted that while she was hesitant at first, because her brother took the vaccine and had mild side effects, she told herself that because they shared the same genes, she would also be okay.

“The [health authorities] need to be more convincing and not demanding that the vaccines be taken. They need to take a different approach in getting persons to take the vaccines. I don’t exactly know what this approach should be, maybe having the children do a health check to see that their immune systems are strong enough before they vaccinate them though this would be time consuming and very expensive,” the mother said.

A Mabaruma, North West District parent, who asked to remain anonymous because of her profession, is among citizens who have not been vaccinated. She admits that she is still somewhat uninformed, but believes many children are healthier than the average adult and as such she does not see the need for them to be inoculated when their immune systems should be able to overcome viruses.

Her husband, she said, had the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine and the side effects kept him home for a week; he will not be taking the second dose of the vaccine as he cannot afford to be away from work another week.

The woman is also hopeful that her son will be returning to school come September, while noting that he has been at school since it reopened for older children without falling sick. She stated that she and her family will be taking the necessary precautionary measures to stay safe but as far as the vaccine goes, until she can be sure that the vaccines will prevent COVID, her answer remains the same.

Information limited

For some parents, the hesitancy over being inoculated is because they are not well-informed. Acting principal of Bina Hill Institute, Annai, North Rupununi, Norbert Salty, who lives in Kwatamang said he is happy that his children are not yet 12 to be eligible for the vaccine. By the time they are that old enough, he is certain he will be more open to it.

Salty, who is fully immunized, said, “We are not as informed as the people are in Georgetown where they can see it on TV, newspaper and Facebook and so. Very few people know what is happening. Very few people follow the news. For the small amount of people who have television, they might have e-Network and are able to follow the news. The adults still don’t know as much as they should about the vaccines for themselves but vaccines for the children, that’s a new topic for us.”

The vaccine being pushed by the government to create herd immunity, Salty said, has created “tensions” in his village. “They don’t have no clue what is happening. Our information is very limited. Last month when Minister of Education Priya Manickchand was here when they were distributing the cash grant for the children, she asked the health worker who was present, how much people were vaccinated so far and the health worker said only 40%. The teachers here took the vaccine and some elders but the rest, they have their religious beliefs about the vaccines being part of the ‘mark of the beast’ and what not. The minister was saying while she was here that if the percentage remains just about the same thing by the time school is ready to be opened, children will not be returning to schools here,” Salty said.

Another reason for the people of his community not being as informed is the language barrier; a large percentage of the residents speak the Macushi language.

He asked that health workers along with the village councillors hold small outreaches to inform people or provide informative brochures on the vaccines. The brochures have to be translated in both Macushi and Wapishana languages.

Meanwhile, Anthony said last Wednesday that from discussions he has had with Education Minister Priya Manickchand, a lot of schools have sent the consent letters to parents and they have been coming back with positive responses. As a result, they are now working to ascertain how many children in each school will be getting the vaccine as well as other information in advance so that health teams, when sent out, will have sufficient shots for each child who would be present for inoculation.

“So far from the preliminary information we have received I think a lot of people, a lot of parents, are excited to get the vaccine for their child because they recognise that without this vaccine it’s going to be extremely difficult to reopen schools,” he said during the daily COVID-19 update.

When asked how students who are not vaccinated would be handled, Anthony said that it would be difficult for that child to attend school physically as every other person would be inoculated so the Ministry of Education will have to work out what protocol would be put in place to address that issue. “There is a law in Guyana that provides for children to be vaccinated and if you’re not vaccinated then you can be denied entry into schools so we do have a law like that and hopefully we don’t have to use it,” he, however, added.

Parents unable to uplift the parental consent form from their children’s schools can download them from the MoE’s website (https://education.gov.gy/covid-vaccine).