PEDIATRIC INOCULATION, BRIDGE TO A “COME BACK”

Pediatric inoculation may have been conceived due to the urge of the
Department of Education to reopen schools toward the last quarter of the school year
2021-2022. While the adults and the early adolescents were already covered in the
COVID-19 vaccination program of the government, the school children in the primary
level must not be disregarded. They are supposed to be the most vulnerable group, next
to the senior citizens, which without question must be given great importance. It should
be noted that the young ones will be the next generation who will take place today’s
leaders.
  The Department of Health (DOH) early this week announced that 70.76 percent
of the country’s target population has already been vaccinated against COVID-19. In
short, almost 64 million Filipinos are fully vaccinated.
This shows that still almost 30% of the target population are not yet
vaccinated. However, HTAC noted that COVID-19 cases (100,609 cases) and
hospitalization (1,9169 confirmed hospitalization) among children ages 5-11 contributed
to 3.495% and 0.06% of total COVID-19 cases (3.1 million cases) in the Philippines
from March 2020 to January 2022, respectively, with a notable increase during the
Omicron wave observed in January 2022 as published by the HTAC
While it is difficult to determine the real burden in the pediatric population due
to limited testing and contact tracing capacity, poor reporting, and other possible issues
like the different community exposure of children because of reduced mobility, the
HTAC deemed that the burden is substantial due to potential adverse health outcomes.
These include severe COVID-19 leading to hospitalization and deaths as well as rare,
but adverse complications such as multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C) and
“long COVID” or the persistence of COVID-19 symptoms even after recovery among
children.  
Due to the unnatural circumstances of isolation of children with limited
socialization and no physical school attendance since the pandemic started, it is also
difficult to predict how COVID-19 could potentially affect this population if the restrictions
are lifted. 
The Department of Education has started allowing some identified public
schools to reopen to have face-to-face classes since last November 2021, and recently
some private schools also started their face-to-facet classes; it is then, proper and
highly recommended that children ages 5-11 be vaccinated as long as they are properly
tested to be safe prior to vaccination. This is to safeguard and ensure prevention of
relapse of the contamination of the life-threatening COVID-19 especially the newly
discovered variant, the DeltaCron.
Nonetheless, there seems to be a very slow implementation of the said
pediatric vaccination. As observed in certain local municipalities, there is a sluggish
scheduling of vaccination among children under the said age bracket in the Rural Health
Units and District Hospitals.
Pediatric vaccination should be given first priority in every rural health unit to
safeguard these vulnerable minors who are now required to go to school to attend their
face-to-face classes. If the DOH is aiming at public safety against this COVID-19, or is
aiming at ending this pandemic, then it should be done as snappy as possible or else if
vaccination is as sluggish as what is going on, there is a chance that these children will
be the next victims that will flock in the hospitals, God forbids…
While everybody is happy for a “come back” of the usual normal, it should be
properly prepared and cooperatively worked on for a positive result and the very basic
preparation is the children’s vaccination. As has been said, “no one is safe until
everyone is safe.” So, the DOH and the DepEd should work hand-in-hand to make this
happen, if and only if they are concerned about the safety of the school children to go
back to school.#