The Washington Post: Coronavirus vaccines for adults and teens are obvious. Not so for younger kids.
By Alexandra Ellerbeck
Experts say it’s a no-brainer for adults and adolescents to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
But for younger kids, the case isn’t as clear cut.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention authorized the Pfizer BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for use in children ages 12 to 15, though it could be months before a vaccine is approved for use in children younger than 12. Pfizer has said it could apply for emergency use authorization for vaccines in this younger age group by early fall, and Moderna may be on a similar timeline.
The CDC reports that 159 children under age 12 have died of covid-19 — that’s a little more than three in every 1 million kids. And it’s not that different from a bad flu year.
More children have been hospitalized: About 56 out of every 100,000 kids under 4 years old have been hospitalized. For children ages 5 to 17, it’s 35 out of 100,000. There’s some debate, too, over how often covid-19 infections can cause lingering effects in children.
The Pfizer pediatric trial is enrolling 4,600 kids, and Moderna is enrolling 6,750. Although the trials test safety and immune response, those study sizes may not be big enough to catch the type of rare event that occurs 1 in 10,000 times.
Read the full article via The Washington Post
Learn more about COVID-19 vaccine at Children's Mercy