Toronto ramps up vaccine efforts aimed at young kids, after province refuses to make COVID-19 shot mandatory

Thestar.com
Nov. 1, 2021

Toronto is ramping up efforts to convince parents to vaccinate children aged five to 11 against COVID-19 after Ontario refused to add the vaccine to others already mandatory for school kids.

Dr. Eileen de Villa, Toronto’s public health chief, commented Friday on her provincial counterpart’s decision not to heed calls from her and others to add COVID-19 vaccine -- when it’s approved for young kids -- to nine others mandated.

“It just means, to us at the local level, that we need to continue to redouble our efforts to ensure that people have access to the information they need around COVID-19 vaccine in children so that they can make the right choice, which ultimately will be for vaccination,” de Villa said at a Scarborough vaccine clinic.

“It is essential that children aged five to 11 are vaccinated against COVID-19. This important step not only protects children from contracting COVID-19, but provides critical protection to members of their family, to those around them at school and to their entire communities.”

Dr. Kieran Moore, Ontario’s top doctor, said Thursday adding COVID-19 to mandatory vaccines for school attendance would be an additional burden on public health agencies, parents and kids, but the issue could be revisited later.

The city on Friday was emailing parents and guardians of public and private school kids aged five to 11, inviting them to fill out a vaccination survey with 15 questions.

Queries include if they plan to vaccinate their child, if so where, when and how soon after approval that should happen and family demographics. The survey is open until Nov. 7.

Toronto already launched an online tool kit with information about vaccinating kids against the potentially deadly virus and is hosting virtual and in-person information sessions to help address any concerns that parents and guardians have.

De Villa said vaccinated kids will be less likely to be infected and to infect family members and friends, and those who get infected are less likely to get seriously ill.

“I’m certain that when we have conversations with parents and guardians of young children, with the appropriate information, they’ll make the right decision as millions of Torontonians already have,” she said.

A new poll suggests almost 70 per cent of Ontario parents plan to vaccinate their children when eligible, while about 20 per cent remain unsure their kids will get the shots.

Local officials hope Pfizer’s vaccine for younger kids will start flowing within weeks. Approval is pending from Health Canada and then Ontario’s Health Ministry.

De Villa said she expects there to be enough supply that it will immediately be available to all eligible Toronto children without stage-gating it by age group, as was done earlier this year with the vaccine rollout for adults.

Toronto Public Health is planning with community agencies to offer vaccine to kids in schools, hospitals, pharmacies, doctors’ offices and community clinics.

Mayor John Tory also urged parents and guardians to help protect kids and boost Toronto’s vaccination rate, which is already among the highest for big cities.

The vaccine is the reason kids can safely celebrate Halloween this year, he said, adding the more protected we are as a city, the quicker the pandemic will end thanks in part to mandates for city employees and others to get protected.

Updated Toronto COVID-19 indicators show a seventh straight week of declines in the daily average for new infections, with no indication that Thanksgiving gatherings earlier this month triggered increased virus spread.

New hospitalizations, intensive care admissions and COVID-19 deaths all remain at or near pandemic lows, suggesting the virus’s fourth wave crested in early September.