What You Can Expect When Vaccines Become Available for Kids Under 5

Dr. Francis Collins is director of the National Institutes of Health and spoke with NPR’s All Things Considered about the timeline for emergency use authorization of the vaccine for kids under 5, and the ongoing efforts to immunize those aged 5 to 11.

As with older Americans, before the vaccine makers can submit for FDA emergency use authorization, they must first conduct trials to ensure the vaccine is safe and effective.

For children under five, these trials are split into two different groups: those aged 2-5, and those aged six months to two years.

“Both of those have had data generated in a carefully controlled trial, and those are going to be submitted and [the] FDA will review them,” Collins said.

“But I think it will be by the first of the year before we have approval for those younger ages.”

How vaccinations are going for the 5-11 age group

But Collins also noted that vaccination rates for kids aged 5-11 haven’t been what public officials had hoped for so far.

“Parents, I think for the most part, have been a little reluctant to decide to get their kids immunized,” Collins said.

“A lot of work has been done to make it easy to do that by getting vaccinations to pediatricians offices and even to schools. But I think we are still even short of half of the kids in that age group getting immunized.”

Despite the reluctance, Collins says he thinks the uptake will increase as parents talk to their pediatricians and become more comfortable with the vaccines.

How pediatricians are approaching conversations with parents

Dr. Jacob Kilgore is a pediatric infectious disease specialist with Marshall Health in Huntington, West Virginia.

“It’s answering questions and concerns or inquiries they may have about the vaccine,” Kilgore says. “What we’ve seen, once we have an opportunity for those that are a little more hesitant to sit and have a conversation … [is] an increasing proportion of parents being very supportive.”

Misinformation about the vaccines has also been an issue public health officials have faced with the rollouts, Collins says.

Kilgore says sharing a few facts associated with the 5-11 age group usually helps reassure parents about the safety of the vaccines.

Pediatricians are playing the long game when it comes to vaccines

Dr. Kathryn Moffett is a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Mountain State Cystic Fibrosis Center in Morgantown, W.V.

She has seen the full range of parents, from those who were excited to vaccinate their kids as soon as vaccines were available, to parents who were hesitant and just wanted to ask some questions first, and then parents who were not interested in having a conversation at all.

One of the concerns some parents have expressed about the vaccines is over a rare side effect called myocarditis, or an inflammation of the heart.

In her career, Moffett has seen children with myocarditis, but says those cases are usually mild and resolve within a day or two. So when she sees parents who express concern over the condition, she explains that the risk of a child developing it from COVID is higher than the chances of a child having myocarditis as a side effect of the vaccine.

“As pediatricians, we are advocates with a family for children’s health,” she says. “And when we don’t succeed in one point of getting someone vaccinated, we need to still be the advocates and tell people what new information is available and realize that vaccines are safe and they’re effective.”

Excerpted from “What You Can Expect When Vaccines Become Available for Kids Under 5” on NPR. Read the full article online.

Source: NPR | What You Can Expect When Vaccines Become Available for Kids Under 5, https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/12/02/1059902455/covid-vaccines-kids-under-5 | © 2021 npr

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