We’re so Close to Getting Kids the COVID Vaccine
Today marks a milestone in the availability of childhood COVID vaccines. The FDA’s Vaccine Advisory Group, VRBPAC, voted the benefits outweigh the risks for Pfizer’s new vaccine for children aged 5-11 only.
The vaccine dose will be lower than the standard Pfizer version available for adults and adolescents. It is still a two-dose series with a three week interval between doses.
Soon the FDA is to officially approve the vaccine for children, and then everything will go to the CDC, whose advisory group, ACIP, meets on November 2 and 3 to advise on who should get the vaccine. This means that you will most likely receive a shot in your child’s arm shortly afterwards, that is, in early November. (We have more information on the process and timeline here .)
Does vaccination make sense for children in this age group?
The members of the advisory group appeared to be in disagreement over whether the vaccine should be allowed for all children or only for high-risk children. In the end, they voted for a free-for-all, but the CDC may decide to make a narrower recommendation.
The biggest risk they discussed was the possibility of heart disease, such as myocarditis and pericarditis, which sometimes occurred after vaccinations in adolescent boys and young men. This is a rare but serious condition. Risk concerns indicated that COVID does not usually cause serious complications in children, so the benefits may only outweigh the risks in children at higher risk.
On the other hand, myocarditis, as a complication of the vaccine, has not yet killed anyone, and 94 children have died from COVID since the start of the pandemic. We also do not know if young children who receive a dose of the pediatric vaccine will have the same risk of myocarditis as older children who received the standard dose of the vaccine.
As far as the benefits of the vaccine are concerned, it can be said that COVID does not usually affect children very much. According to one estimate presented at the advisory group meeting, 40% of children in this age group may already have immunity. Of those hospitalized with COVID, about two-thirds had a previous health condition, so there may not be much benefit from vaccinating healthy children.
On the other side of this problem – 94 deaths. This is a small number, but much more than zero. COVID is currently the eighth leading cause of death for children in this age group. (Death in children, fortunately, is rare.) Preventing infections in children can help protect more vulnerable family members as well as prevent long-term COVID and allow more children to return to full-time school.
Personally, as a parent, it seems to me that the benefits outweigh the risks to my healthy children. But next week, I will be paying close attention to the discussion in the CDC group, and it is also important to know what the pediatricians think. Follow the news.