Vaccination rates among Windsor-Essex youth lag behind the rest of Ontario

While more than half of Windsor-Essex adults have received three doses of a COVID-19 shot, the rate of vaccination among younger children remains lower than the rest of Ontario.

But efforts are underway to bring those numbers up.

As of Thursday, about 23 per cent of Windsor-Essex children in that age range have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, public health data shows. Across Ontario, 26 per cent of children aged 5 to 11 have received two doses.

"It's not new to have some hesitancy with new vaccines," said Dr. Andrea Steen, chief of staff at Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare and a local family physician.

"We've seen this in the past with other vaccines when they were introduced," she said. "Back in the late 1990s, when the chicken pox vaccine was introduced, there was a lot of pushback.

"A lot of people who felt that, oh, the kids should just get chickenpox, they shouldn't have the vaccine," Steen said. "But ... nobody even considers not vaccinating their kids with chickenpox anymore. It's not even a discussion. It's just part of the vaccine routine."

Earlier this month, Windsor-Essex school boards sent a survey to parents, asking about their children's vaccination status and why they may be hesitant.

The survey results haven't been publicly shared by the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit (WECHU).

On Thursday, the region's acting medical officer of health, Dr. Shanker Nesathurai, said many parents are hesitant to vaccinate their children against COVID-19, and want to know more about the vaccine before making the decision. 

"Based on the information we have today, I think the informed choice is to get your child vaccinated today if they in fact are eligible for the vaccine," he said.

"Vaccination is one fo the most effective public health approaches in modern medicine. If you're vaccinated you're less likely to get sick and less likely to be hospitalized."

Cystal Anger said while she's vaccinated, she's holding off when it comes to getting her kids the vaccine.

"I just wanted to see the reactions in the kids over time," she said Wednesday. "To vaccinate myself is my personal choice. I'm not an anti-vaxxer. They have their other vaccines but it's a newer vaccine.

"I want to be a bit cautious about it."

Anger said with hospitalizations down and pandemic restrictions easing, it may be difficult to convince parents to get their children vaccinated.

"We've all had COVID already and we've all lived," she said. "I've had worse flus, I've had better flus."

Steen, however, still believes children should be vaccinated.

In the fall, WECHU's board of health passed a resolution asking the province of Ontario to add COVID-19 to the list of nine diseases public school students must be immunized against under the Immunization of School Pupils Act. Under the act, families must provide updated vaccination records of students. 

WECHU and local officials hoped this update would increase the uptake of the vaccine among children. 

The province has yet to make any changes to the act.

A 'trusted voice' needed

"Most kids will do fine getting COVID, but there are some kids that do get very sick," she said. "If we want this pandemic where we all want it to be, finished, behind us, we need to try to get the vaccination numbers as high as we possibly can."

Steen said children's vaccination rates could be brought up if more family doctors were able to provide vaccines. That can be difficult for various reasons, including cold storage requirements, and the necessary waiting period after getting the vaccine, she said.

"I think one of the biggest issues is that the vaccines are happening in these separate sites," she said. "I think that when we can get these vaccines more into the offices, to family physicians where families are used to going to get their vaccines, I think we'll get a much better uptake.

"I think they just need that trusted voice."