Key Points
- The US has added the COVID vaccine to its recommended immunisation for children and babies.
- It recommends the jab for babies as young as six months old.
- An expert says whether the Australian government will follow.
COVID-19 vaccinations have been added to other recommended childhood inoculations in the United States, but a leading infectious diseases physician says it's unlikely Australia will follow suit.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has added COVID-19 vaccinations to its routine childhood immunisation schedule, with the shots now appearing alongside other commonly administered jabs such as measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR), chickenpox, polio and influenza.
The CDC recommended COVID-19 vaccination for children as young as six months old in June 2022, but formalised it in their annual schedule this month. The number of recommended doses is dependent on the child's age and the brand of vaccine used.
The schedule is only a recommendation and is not indicative of a mandate.
But Australia is unlikely to add COVID-19 vaccinations to its schedule, according to Professor Robert Booy, an expert at the Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute at the University of Sydney.
Professor Booy told SBS News that the US are "a bit gung-ho" when it comes to vaccination recommendations.
"They're recommending vaccinations even for children who are at mild risk," he said.
"They're recommending vaccinations to all children."
Professor Booy said Australia will not follow the US and won't recommend the jab for babies.
"We're taking the approach that vaccination is for children who are vulnerable - children who are at high risk and who have multiple medical problems or disability," he said.
Professor Booy said that "we're not standing out" and that "the UK is even more conservative than we are" when it comes to vaccination recommendations for children.
"We're just doing similar to other countries, the US is standing out by being a bit 'gung-ho' in recommending vaccination to all children under five."
Professor Booy said there is a point of diminishing returns when recommending the jab to young children or babies.
He said there's "always a cost-benefit analysis" when approaching vaccine rollouts.
"In about one-in-5,000 older teenage boys, there is an issue of possible myocarditis [inflammation of the heart muscle] with vaccination," he said.
"It's almost always followed by recovery within two weeks, but occasionally, teenage boys and young men in their early 20s get myocarditis that can proceed for weeks and months.
"That is part of the concern as to why, if you don't get severe disease from this from natural infection, why vaccinate when you've already have good, strong natural immunity based on prior vaccination and prior infection?"
Professor Booy said people who get myocarditis from the vaccine "mostly tolerate it well" and recover.
Vaccination is also recommended for children aged six months to under 5 years who are severely immunocompromised or have a disability, as well as those who have complex and/or multiple health conditions that increase their risk of severe COVID-19.
SBS News has been contacted the federal Health Minister Mark Butler on whether Australia will change its COVID vaccine recommendations.
