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By Joseph Ax and Sharon Bernstein
(Reuters) – In an ideal world, Leah Smithers said she could afford to wait for longer-term testing of COVID-19 vaccines before getting the vaccine for her 10-year-old son.
But with his juvenile diabetes putting him at greater risk for complications if he contracts the virus – and with much of his young life already shaped by the pandemic – she is ready for him to receive the vaccine as soon as he is. eligible.
“I’m a parent who worries about the food I put in their body, everything I put in their body,” said Smithers, 43, who lives in the San Francisco suburb of Albany and has two other children, ages 13 and 4. “But that seems like the best choice to keep him safe.”
Pfizer and BioNTech’s announcement on Monday that a low dose of their coronavirus vaccine was found to be safe and effective for children aged 5 to 11 in a clinical trial has been a relief for many parents who are waiting with it. looking forward to the chance to protect their children.
The highly contagious Delta variant of the virus collided with the start of the academic year in the United States, skyrocketing infections in young children – including many cases requiring hospitalization – and forcing thousands of schools to close for days or even weeks.
The companies said they plan to seek regulatory approval as soon as possible for a 10 microgram dose for children aged 5 to 11 after leading to a strong immune response in a trial of 2,268 participants. The vaccine at its initial concentration of 30 micrograms has already been approved urgently for children aged 12 to 15 years. Health officials believe the lowest dose could be approved for young children by the end of October.
Some parents have expressed hesitation about the vaccine for their young children, citing the lack of large-scale studies and long-term data on its effects in this population. There are approximately 29 million American children between the ages of 5 and 11.
“Many are parents who have been vaccinated themselves – and their children are vaccinated for everything else – but are just concerned about a brand new vaccine,” said Shen Nagel, a Denver-area pediatrician. “They also believe that children are less likely to contract serious illness.”
About four in ten parents of children aged 5 to 11 said they would “wait and see” how the vaccine worked before giving it to their children, according to data from a survey released by the Kaiser Family Foundation in August. A quarter said they “definitely will not” get their children vaccinated, while another quarter said they will do it “right now.”
In interviews, pediatricians and public health experts said parents seemed less hesitant over time.
Nancy Lataitis, another Denver-area pediatrician, said some parents tired from the pandemic have realized that vaccination may be the only way to avoid school disruptions.
“Schools impose quarantines, close,” she said. “They hear about teachers who have fallen ill.”
Jill Goldstein, 50, had to remove her 8-year-old daughter from her New York elementary school on the second day of the school year after another child tested positive, triggering a mandatory 10-day quarantine for the class .
Goldstein said she would get her daughter vaccinated, but admitted she may not be “the first line.”
“I just want to make sure that the benefit outweighs the risk,” she said. “I understand that the benefit is not just for her but for the community, and I take that into account as well.”
RISK ASSESSMENT
Los Angeles, home to the nation’s second-largest school district, has already made vaccines mandatory for students 12 and older.
Just over 50% of U.S. children ages 12 to 15 have received at least one injection, according to federal data, fewer than any other eligible age group.
While children remain at low risk, nearly 500 have died from COVID-19, placing it among the top 10 causes of pediatric deaths, said Sean O’Leary, vice chair of the infectious diseases committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
In some areas with high infection rates, pediatric hospitals have been overwhelmed.
O’Leary said there was no reason to expect the vaccine to pose a particular risk to young children.
“These vaccines have probably been evaluated for their safety better than any other drug in history,” he said. He noted that vaccines historically have no long-term side effects. Side effects tend to occur soon after vaccination, not months later.
It remains possible that the vaccine may cause rare side effects in children that cannot be detected in a relatively small study. But that’s no reason to avoid vaccines, said Arthur Reingold, president of epidemiology at the University of California-Berkeley School of Public Health.
“People say, ‘I would like more follow-up … I want more studies,'” he said. “Everything is logical and rational – and one thing completely impossible to ask.”
Adrienne Day, a reporter from Brooklyn, definitely plans to vaccinate her 7-year-old daughter, saying she trusts the science behind it all.
“To me,” she said, “it’s like getting the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine or the flu shot.”
(Reporting by Joseph Ax and Sharon Bernstein; Additional reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Bill Berkrot)
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