COVID Vaccines Finally Recommended for Children Ages 5-11
A CDC advisory group voted today to recommend Pfizer’s pediatric COVID vaccine for all children ages 5-11. This recommendation was endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the National Association of Pediatric Nursing Practitioners, and the Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases, all of which read statements in support of the vaccine at the meeting.
The vaccine was approved by the FDA last week , and the federal government has already procured enough vaccine for free doses for all 28 million US children in this age group. The CDC is expected to make the recommendation official shortly, and you can make an appointment with your pediatrician or local vaccination clinic within a few days, if not by the time you read this. [Update 03/11/2021: It’s official . Go and order.]
A member of the American Pharmacists Association noted in the meeting that you may have to make an appointment rather than wait for you to enter the pharmacy, and that waiting may be required due to high parental demand and a lack of staff at the pharmacy.
How is this vaccine different from the teen and adult version?
This vaccine, like the vaccine currently used for adults and children 12 years of age and older, has been shown to be safe, immunogenic (meaning that the child’s immune system has responded by producing large amounts of neutralizing antibodies), and effective in preventing infections. COVID-19. Side effects are similar to those in adults.
The vaccine comes in pediatric form, packaged in orange top vials, not purple top vials, at a lower dose than the adult version. This means that when making an appointment, you need to make sure that you are going to a clinic where a pediatric version can be prescribed; adult dose is not the same thing. (However, if a child receives the adult version by accident, no serious consequences are expected, and that dose does count as part of their series.)
Does COVID vaccination make sense for children?
Children are less likely than adults to get severely ill with COVID-19, but they can get sick, and they are definitely able to transmit the virus to adults, including family members. (More than 140,000 US children have lost their parents to COVID .)
COVID has killed at least 94 children aged 5 to 11 in the United States, making it the eighth leading cause of death in this age group. More than 8,000 people have been hospitalized, some with serious and likely life-long consequences. Yes, children are more likely to be asymptomatic or have mild infections than they will go to the hospital or die, but this still means that many children become seriously ill with the virus.
In the week since the FDA approved a vaccine for this age group, I have asked pediatricians what they think about who should get the vaccine and who might not need it or should wait. All the answers were unanimous: the benefits of the vaccine far outweigh the risks for almost everyone.
“I recommend it to all my patients in the approved age range,” says pediatrician Dr. Daniel Summers. “Even the low risk of serious complications [COVID-19] for children is higher than I would like to accept when we have safe and effective remedies to reduce it.”
“Vaccinating children is the best way to keep them safe from COVID-19 and an important step towards ending the pandemic,” says Dr. Adam Ratner, head of the Department of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital. He noted that the vaccine benefits children directly, protecting them from disease, as well as indirectly, “including reducing the overall spread of COVID-19 in society, which can help protect vulnerable people and keep schools open and safe. “
“All eligible children should receive the vaccine,” says Dr. Priti Parikh, Medical Director of GoodRx. The delta variant of COVID-19 is more infectious for children, and the risks of hospitalization or serious illness, including myocarditis, are higher due to infection with COVID-19 than due to the side effect of the vaccine. We cannot forget how important it is to protect our children, and the sooner you get vaccinated the better. ”
Updated 11/03/2021 to include quote from Dr. Parikh.