Health Minister Greg Hunt said the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation had given the second green light to the vaccine. “I’m delighted to be able to announce that we now have a double green light for the Moderna children’s vaccine,” he said.“It will be able to commence as of tomorrow.”Australia is the first jurisdiction to approve the use of Moderna in school-aged kids. Pfizer remains the only vaccination available for children who are five years old. There are no jabs approved for children aged four years and under.The Moderna vaccine for kids is a half dose, the same as the Moderna booster. So far, 49.4 per cent of kids aged five to 11 have received their first dose of the Covid jab since the program came online in early January. But the federal government wants that figure to sit somewhere around the 76 per cent mark. “Australia is one of the highest childhood vaccination rates in the world already, but it can go higher, and we want it to go higher,” Mr Hunt said.He added criticism of the slow pace of the rollout was unfounded, given Australia is ahead of the US, UK and Germany on vaccination rates for the age group.A round table of state and federal government representatives and public health experts are set to meet on Friday to discuss how to increase the uptake of the Covid jab in kids. Therapeutic Goods Administration boss John Skerritt also pleaded with those saying Covid did not affect children to cut it out. “There has been a lot of talk (that) kids don’t get very sick with Covid, why are we exposing them unnecessarily,” Dr Skerritt told reporters in Canberra. “Well, in Australia, we believe there have been at least six deaths of children with Covid-19. That’s a very significant impact.“There’s also a serious condition that between 40 and 50 kids in Australia have called multisystem inflammatory syndrome. “I get a bit grumpy when people say ‘Covid-19 doesn’t affect kids, it’s just a cold’. Try telling that to the parents of the kids who got sick.”
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