As Covid-19 cases increase in teens, so do vaccinations, CNN analysis shows

The share of fully vaccinated people aged 12 to 15 also increased, from 21.5% in June to 28.7% in July to 32.2% in August.

At the same time, this age group accounted for 43.5% of people receiving at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in June, rising to 49.7% in July and 54.2% in August. The share of fully immunized people in this age group increased from 34.6% in June to 40.1% in July and 42.7% in August.

This means that there are still millions of teens going back to school this month unvaccinated, but they are a declining group among the estimated 25 million children aged 12 to 17 in the United States. United.

“They realize that they have to be protected”

13-year-old Ishaan Mishra remembers being among the first American teens to line up at a local Walgreens in San Francisco for the vaccine in May. That month, the United States Food and Drug Administration cleared the Pfizer / BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for adolescents as young as 12 years old.

“We got it relatively early when it was released and there were definitely a few other teens there, so people over 12 were lining up, and I was pretty excited overall,” Ishaan told CNN on Tuesday, se remembering the moment.

“It helped my friends feel more secure interacting with me,” he said of the vaccination. “I could see them more.”

Now, several months later, Ishaan will be starting 8th grade on September 1 and he said many of his peers still have positive opinions about the Covid-19 vaccine.

“They realize that it is necessary to protect them,” Ishaan said.

“I think it’s very important to get vaccinated before the start of the school year,” Ishaan said. “There is always a possibility that you can catch Covid-19 and want to protect yourself as much as possible. ”

Before taking Ishaan back to the pharmacy for her second dose, Gandhi said she first waited until the ACIP meeting on June 23 to hear the results of data on myocarditis cases in young men who had received the vaccine.

ACIP is the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a group of medical and public health experts that develops recommendations on how to use vaccines.

Vaccinations for 12 to 15 year olds began at a high level shortly after May 10, when the FDA cleared the two-dose Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine for this age group. In less than a week, 600,000 children in this group were vaccinated, according to CDC data.

But the numbers plunged on May 23, the day after articles appeared in the media around the possible link with the vaccine and myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart, in young people. Most cases of myocarditis were mild and usually resolved quickly.

In June, the FDA added a warning about the risk of myocarditis and pericarditis, inflammation of the tissues surrounding the heart, to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine fact sheets.

The CDC data showing that the cases of myocarditis were mild was reassuring, Gandhi said, and so she took Ishaan for her second injection in June, about six weeks after her first dose.

“We had a good experience,” she said, adding that Ishaan had only experienced “mild side effects such as fatigue, pain in the arms and mild fever after the second stroke.”

What explains the increase in vaccinations?

Even though vaccinations among adolescents have plummeted following reports of myocarditis, data suggests vaccinations are now back on the rise.

“In my opinion, and from what I have seen among my teenage patients, many are anxious to get the vaccine now because they understand the urgency of getting it done before the start of the school year,” said the Dr Priya Soni, Assistant Professor of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.

“This reasoning, combined with the understanding that the Delta variant is propelling this pandemic into another wave, they are now more eager than ever to build on what science has taught us time and time again: vaccines work,” said Soni. “Ultimately, by weighing the pros and cons of starting the school year without protection from Covid-19, many teens and parents are taking the step that gives them the best chance of having a healthy school year.”

Maldonado called the recent increase in Covid-19 vaccinations among adolescents “promising.”

“It is always encouraging to see people seeking the benefits of safe and effective vaccines for COVID-19 as well as other infectious diseases. While we still have some way to go to increase our vaccine count, this is a promising trend. Maldonado said.

“I think the much anticipated reopening of schools is a factor that encourages families to have all their eligible members vaccinated,” she said. “There is no evidence, however, that school openings are the source of new COVID-19 infections. These reflect the highly transmissible infections that occur in unvaccinated adults in community settings. . ”

The recent increase in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations, fueled by the Delta coronavirus variant, appears to be leading to vaccinations in younger people, Gandhi said.

“Yes, I think the Delta Wave and the growing concern about children’s safety, especially as schools reopen, are behind this desire by parents to have their children or adolescents themselves vaccinated. said Gandhi, who is also director of the UCSF Center for AIDS Research.

“I think it’s very encouraging because the group furthest behind in vaccinations were young people, including teenagers,” Gandhi said. “The Delta variant has made vaccinations even more urgent for young people and I think it’s encouraging to see that 20% of those who have completed their vaccinations in the last 14 days are teenagers.”

Gandhi’s 13-year-old son Ishaan hopes more people in his age range who have not yet been vaccinated will roll up their sleeves soon.

“This is the most effective way to stop the pandemic because the masks work, but they can’t protect you from everything,” Ishaan said.

“The vaccine is generally 94% effective,” he said. “So this is definitely one of the best options you can get when trying to protect yourself and the community from Covid-19.”