Parents Can Rest Easy with Childhood Covid Vaccine
“Vaccinating children for COVID-19 is a key component to reaching the two-thirds threshold necessary to obtain herd immunity and stop the pandemic from continuing to spread and mutate,” said Dr. Miguela Caniza, Director of the St. Jude Global Infectious Diseases Program at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Dr. Caniza’s statement came following the U.S. Food & Drug Administration’s (FDA) announcement on May 10, 2021 that opens the door for children 12-15 to receive the Pfizer vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19. An officially released FDA letter to Pfizer noted:
“On May 10, 2021, having concluded that revising this EUA (Emergency Use Authorization) is appropriate to protect the public health or safety under section 564(g)(2) of the Act, FDA again is reissuing the letter in its entirety to authorize emergency use of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID‐19 Vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19 for individuals 12 through 15 years of age, as well as for individuals 16 years of age and older.”
The FDA went on to explain that the decision was taken based on results of a continuing Phase 1/2/3 trial involving approximately 46,000 participants, including 2,260 subjects 12-15 years of age that revealed no safety concerns. The “FDA concluded that it is reasonable to believe that Pfizer-BioNTech COVID‐19 Vaccine may be effective in individuals 12 through 15 years of age.”
Endorsing the decision, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices made an interim recommendation for the use of the Pfizer vaccine in this age group.
Pfizer has already started Phase 1 trials for efficacy and reactions in children six months to 11 years, and are hopeful for positive indications sometime later this year.
Rest Easy
Parents who have been concerned about their children being infected, and waiting for the go ahead to have them inoculated, can now rest easy. Jamaican-American Joy Belnavis is one such parent. She took action as soon as the announcement was made to have her 14 year-old son, Kai, vaccinated.
“When they said it was open for children his age group, I was happy. But, I thought he would be apprehensive because he doesn’t like needles. Surprisingly though, he was the one who came to me and said he wanted the vaccine. So, he got it a few days after we spoke about it and he was fine,” Belnavis said.
She continued: “I just felt it was important because whenever we are around people, vaccinated or not, Kai has to wear a mask to protect them, and himself. Some people say the vaccines were rushed, but I feel that it was done securely, they went through all the steps. I wasn’t worried, although I was a little concerned because he has allergies, but, he wasn’t affected at all. I feel a lot more at ease, and certainly confident about travelling now.”
Asked about his vaccine experience Kai noted: “I didn’t feel anything until the next day when my arm felt a little heavy. And, when I was actually getting the shot, I didn’t feel anything. My best friend at school also got the vaccine,” Kai said smiling.
Although Covid-19 causes less severe disease, better prognosis, and unlikely death in children than it does in adults, youngsters are still vulnerable to some extent. According to the American Society of Pediatrics, more than “3.9 million children have tested positive for COVID-19 since the onset of the pandemic…and for the week ending May 13, children were 24.0 percent of new reported weekly COVID-19 cases.”
Like all viruses that affect human beings, we will have to live with Covid-19 while finding ways to mitigate its debilitating effects and the potential for new variants.
Said Dr. Caniza, “The COVID virus has come to stay with us and our best defense against minimizing long-term impacts on our society is to achieve herd immunity. As the research continues to bear out the safety and efficacy of COVID vaccine use in children, it is likely these vaccines will become part of the current 14 routine vaccination in childhood.”
