Can you give us an update on the vaccine for children? When do you envisage this will become available? – Anna Chircop

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the US Centres for Disease Control (CDC) have recently authorised the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children from 12 years up. This means the FDA and the CDC determined that clinical trials show this vaccine is safe and effective for children in this age range.

The European Medicines Agency is currently evaluating data from these trials with a view to approving the use of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for use in children from 12 years up within EU member states. Once approval is given, we shall include this age group in the vaccination strategy for Malta.

Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is already authorised by EMA for anyone over 16 and is currently being offered to those who are registering with the national vaccination programme. Current safety and efficacy testing of other COVID vaccines for children aged two and up may lead to authorisation of one or more of the COVID-19 vaccines for younger children in the months ahead.

Do you think schools will have to follow this year’s mitigation measures in the upcoming scholastic year? If so, why? When will you have more details? – Mark Cini

Currently all educational settings follow mitigation measures against COVID-19, which were adopted since the beginning of the scholastic year.

The general principles adopted in schools are based on cohorting/grouping children so they interact only with those children within their class bubble/transport bubble, keeping groups as small as possible. There are also other precautions including strict adherence to hygiene measures, use of masks and avoiding school if student/educator were symptomatic in any way.

Prioritising educators for vaccination was aimed at keeping the school communities safe and avoiding educational disruptions as much as possible.

Guidance was provided on adequate ventilation and cleaning procedures of the premises, minimum physical distancing between desks and which activities can be permitted and which should be avoided in terms of the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

A very important network between health and education was created and strengthened during this pandemic in terms of the COVID-19 liaison officers.

These trained officers, together with the dedicated team within the Public Health COVID-19 Response were critical to ensure that all school-related COVID-19 mitigation measures were adhered to rigorously; they are also the contact persons to enable rapid action from public health authorities in order to detect and manage cases and clusters of COVID-19 rapidly and effectively to break potential chains of transmission.

Although currently the level of community spread is at one of the lowest points since the start of the pandemic, it is still too early to predict what the next scholastic year is going to bring and which mitigation measures are likely to be required in the school setting.

The local situation needs to be continuously evaluated in terms of both the local and international epidemiology particularly as regards the characteristics of some variants of concern.

Rapidly evolving research provides more evidence to guide policymakers on the best targeted measures required to prevent spread, together with more and more evidence on vaccine efficacy in the real-world.

If there is a need for a booster, will the elderly be given priority again? – Mario Caruana

It is conceivable, and probably likely, that at some time we will need a booster dose of the vaccine for two reasons.

Firstly, the immunity provided by the first course of vaccines may wane over time. So far we know that six months after the course of vaccines the level of immunity has remained strong and further evaluation will provide more information on further protection.

Secondly, there might be some problematic variants that evolve that may need to be controlled by a “booster” vaccine specifically for them.

All the producers of the vaccines authorised for use in the EU are working on developing a booster dose but whether we will need to use it or not depends on these two factors. If a booster dose is necessary, it should again be given first to those who are most at risk of succumbing to COVID infection.

Can you provide an update on blood clot cases after vaccination? – Frank Borg

The European Medicines Agency has concluded its review of both AstraZeneca and Janssen COVID vaccines and confirms that the benefits of the vaccines in preventing COVID-19 outweigh the risks of side effects.

There have been reports of specific blood clots associated with a low platelet count in a relatively small number of persons who received a dose of these vaccines.

The chances of such a side effect occurring following vaccination are extremely low and studies have shown that there is no link with age, gender or underlying medical conditions.

One plausible explanation for the combination of blood clots and low blood platelets is an immune response, leading to a condition similar to one seen sometimes in patients treated with heparin.

All medications, including vaccines, can have rare but serious side effects. It is important to know about them so that treatment can be given immediately in the unlikely event of such a scenario.

Have any questions to ask the superintendent? Send an e-mail to askcharmaine@timesofmalta.com.