What about the younger children?

THE EDITOR: While the Government focuses on boosters and legislation for “mandatory” vaccines, what about the children five-11 years old? We cannot talk about physical school reopening in February until we have the option to vaccinate this group.

The silence is deafening. Many parents are eagerly awaiting this vaccine for their children and their own lives to normalise somewhat.

Some children in this group are vulnerable due to immunocompromised conditions, comorbidities and/or living with parents or relatives who have comorbidities.

In the first week of 2022, the US is seeing the highest levels of children in this cohort in hospital due to the omicron variant (https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/04/health/us-coronavirus-tuesday/index.html).

With approximately 150,000 children eligible in this group (CSO 2020 estimates), what are we waiting for?

We certainly cannot use the excuse that we await WHO’s explicit approval as it still holds to the position of vaccine equity first, but the facts are that the largest vaccine manufacturer in the world in India is shutting down some production due to lack of orders (https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/health/serum-institute-plans-to-cut-monthly-production-of-covishield-by-50/2384069/).

Our health authorities should not cede their decision-making to WHO. We must do what is best for our own situation.

C ALEXANDER

Port of Spain