Alberta newcomers could lag behind without more access to pediatric COVID-19 shots, agencies warn

Groups that help newcomers in Calgary worry the same barriers that kept vaccination rates low in northeast Calgary earlier in the pandemic could hold back immunization rates among children between the ages of five and 11 if the province doesn't move quickly to increase access. 

Pfizer's pediatric shots, approved by Health Canada last week, are primarily being offered at 120 Alberta Health Services' immunization clinics around the province. Appointments begin on Friday.

The only other places the vaccines will be offered to younger children is four pharmacies in communities with no nearby AHS clinics (Warburg, Clive, Legal and Alix) and at public health clinics and nursing stations on First Nation reserves.

"We're going to have all of the same issues that we had the first time around, which took us months to be able to get everybody vaccinated," said Anila Lee Yuen, president and CEO of the Centre for Newcomers and chair of the Calgary East Zone Newcomers Collaborative which worked, successfully, to boost immunization rates in northeast Calgary.

That work included a large, community-based, drop-in vaccination clinic in northeast Calgary with support in numerous languages.

Lee Yuen is calling for more widespread access to the vaccine for families with young children.

"Not every family has access to reliable internet. They don't have access to smart devices nor do they have access to reliable telephone. So those are barriers right away in terms of people booking," she said, noting many people do shift work, are unable to get to clinics during regular work hours, or have unpredictable or precarious employment.

"And, of course, there's language barriers … there's transportation barriers. Not everyone  has reliable transportation to be able to get their family to get the vaccines."

According to Yuen, the best place to start is with school-based vaccination programs for children fvie to 11 years old, an option that is not currently being considered in the province.

"That is unfortunately very problematic for vulnerable communities and for communities that had the same barriers to get vaccines the first time around," said Lee Yuen.

Alberta Health Minister Jason Copping confirmed Tuesday there are no plans to vaccinate younger children in schools.

"We're not running them in schools at this point in time. We're rolling out the vaccines for younger kids at the 120 AHS clinics because that's the best way for the scale of the program," said Copping.

"We actually ran clinics for kids in junior high and high schools and that wasn't all that successful. Seven hundred of the 1,300 schools that were offered actually cancelled."

According to Copping, 4,000 doses for kids ages 12 and up were administered in 591 Alberta schools.