As adults all over the country continue to be vaccinated, with some cities already achieving a certain level of herd protection, the government has announced that it may start vaccinating children and teens as early as October. The priority would be those with comorbidities.
This announcement is in step with initiatives from other countries, particularly from the United States' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which said that "although fewer children have been infected with COVID-19 compared to adults, children can still be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19, get sick from it, or spread the virus to others."
The CDC then recommends everyone 12 years and older get a COVID-19 vaccination to help protect against the disease. It further added: "Widespread vaccination is a critical tool to help stop the pandemic. People who are fully vaccinated can resume activities that they did prior to the pandemic."
This has prompted local government units to start opening the online registration for those 12 to 17 years old. The cities of Manila, Caloocan, Taguig, Pateros, among others have announced on their official Facebook pages the pre-registration guidelines. In Quezon City, for example, it is now gathering an official list of students from private and public schools. QC's mayor said it is important for the minors to be vaccinated as soon as possible as they comprise more than 30 percent of the city's population
Though the government, particularly the IATF, has yet to greenlight the inoculation for minors, some groups have expressed their concern, especially when it comes to vaccine supply. Two groups, namely the Philippine Pediatric Society (PPS) and the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society of the Philippines (PIDSP) have urged the government to "vaccinate a sufficient percentage of the adult population, before moving to minors" and to "take into consideration the vaccine supply and groups with comorbidities."
In their statement, haste must not be the prime motivation as it said: "Adults and more vulnerable age groups should still be prioritized in the vaccination rollout, with the aim of equitable distribution among different regions of the country. Once there is a sufficient percentage vaccinated in the priority adult groups, then those 12 years old and above may be considered for vaccination."
As of the moment, the Department of Health has not released any proper recommendation for minors to be vaccinated against COVID-19, even though studies abroad have showed the efficacy of vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer for emergency use. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Philippines has also just recently approved the use of Moderna for minors, which comes after its approval of Pfizer vaccine in June.
Calls to expand the vaccination coverage seems to be growing louder, especially as positive COVID cases are rising or remain at a high infection rate on a daily basis. But on the other hand, there are still issues when it comes to vaccine supply and making sure that the majority of the adult population are inoculated to achieve nationwide immunity. Time can only tell when it is possible for kids to be fully vaccinated so that their parents could sigh in relief and feel their worries melt away. But for the meantime, whether one is a minor or not, it is still better to mask up.