Opinions abound over giving younger children the covid-19 vaccine

Though it isn’t officially approved, many expect the U.S. Food and Drug Administration soon will permit children as young as 5 to get a covid-19 vaccination.

One person anxious for approval is Jenn Sillett, a 43-year-old Hempfield mother of three — including a son, 8, and a daughter, 9.

“I cannot wait. I’m looking forward to and watching anxiously for the FDA to pass that,” said Sillett, who does medical billing for UPMC.

She discussed getting her younger children the covid vaccine with the family pediatrician in August while getting their wellness checks.

“They got their flu shots and everything, and it’s just kind of in a holding pattern waiting for it,” she said.

An FDA advisory committee on Tuesday endorsed the Pfizer vaccine for emergency use authorization for ages 5 to 11. Full approval from the FDA is expected soon. A Centers for Disease Control panel also must grant approval.

The Biden administration last week said it purchased 65 million pediatric doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which would cover the additional 28 million children who would become eligible. The FDA in May approved the vaccine for ages 12 to 15. People as young as 16 have been eligible to get vaccinated since December.

Like Sillett, about 1 in 3 parents polled recently by the Kaiser Family Foundation said they plan to get their young children vaccinated as soon as possible.

The poll found 4 out of 10 parents plan to “wait and see” or get their children vaccinated only if required. About a quarter of respondents (24%) said they definitely would not get their children vaccinated.

The latest Kaiser Covid-19 Vaccine Monitor found that about half (48%) of parents with children ages 12 to 17 said their child had received at least one dose of a vaccine.

Still, parental apprehension is “all over the board,” local health care experts said.

“Some are eager and anxious, and others want to see more data,” said Joe Aracri, chairman of the pediatric institute at Allegheny Health Network. “We have others who are flat-out refusing.”

FDA approval for the lower age group would close the gap on a wide swath of the country’s population eligible for the shot. Only children 4 and younger would remain ineligible.

“Everything looks really positive,” Aracri said. “But we are stuck, as far as how we can counsel parents, until the FDA gives its full approval.”

Excela Health in Westmoreland County said it plans to offer pediatric vaccinations, when approved, at its clinic in Excela Square at Norwin, located in North Huntingdon.

“We will be working with our pediatric colleagues in the region and are pleased to be able to provide vaccinations to those between the ages of 5 and 11,” said Dr. Carol Fox, Excela’s chief medical officer. “Of course, we will not start until Dr. (Rochelle) Walensky at the CDC formally signs off on vaccines for this age group. At this point, I would anticipate that to be in the coming weeks.”

‘Risk is not zero’

Allegheny County Director of Health Debra Bogen said it is important for parents to have accurate information when deciding whether to vaccinate their children, and she laid out a list of facts about the virus and the vaccine.

“We know that children are at much lower risk for severe covid than adults and seniors, but the risk is not zero,” Bogen said. More than 6 million children across the country have been diagnosed with covid — about 16.5% of all U.S. cases.

The virus has crept into the top 10 causes of death among children in the United States.

Bogen said it’s not clear how the virus impacts children in the long term, although she noted some children do suffer from so-called long-haul covid.

“In general, children fare well — but not always,” she said.

Bogen also broke down the vaccine trials among the 5-to-11 age group. The first round followed 2,200 children for at least two months, about two thirds of whom were given the vaccine and one third who received a placebo. The tests found the vaccine was over 90% effective in preventing symptomatic covid. An additional 2,200 children participated in a second round of the trial, with the same breakdown.

She said the most common side effects were pain and redness at the injection site, which faded within a few days. Less common were fever, headache and fatigue, and children experienced those side effects at a lower rate than older teenagers and adults, she said.

No life-threatening events were attributable to the vaccine, Bogen said.

Matter of trust

Dr. Maya Ragavan, a general pediatrician and associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh medical school, recently co-authored a small study on how parents feel about vaccinating their children. The study found that, whatever the parent decided for themselves concerning the vaccine, their decision will be the same for their children.

Pediatricians regularly discussed vaccines with parents before the covid-19 pandemic. “That is a part of what we do,” Ragavan said.

The voices of people who are strongly against the vaccine, though, are amplified, Ragavan noted.

“However, a lot of people in clinic have thoughtful questions, and they just need answers,” she said.

Trustworthy sources or a lack of credible sources of information plays into parents’ opinions.

“A lot had to do with who people find trustworthy,” she said. “People find pediatricians trustworthy.”

With a roll-out of a vaccine for younger children, the pediatrician messaging to parents is an important part of the process, Ragavan said.

Sillett of Hempfield had such a conversation and is ready.

She, her husband and her 20-year-old daughter are vaccinated. None of them experienced any side effects afterward, so she said she has no hesitancy when it comes to her younger children.

“I think I’ll rest a little easier knowing we’ll have some kind of vaccination bubble in the house,” she said. “I think I’ll finally relax a little bit once I know the kids have a little bit of armor.”

When the vaccine receives official approval, some parents, like Harmar resident Sarah Spence, say they’ll wait and seek advice from their pediatrician.

Spence has three kids, ages 7, 11 and 15. Her oldest is vaccinated. She asked her pediatrician for his opinion on the vaccine during a visit two weeks ago. He advised her to wait before scheduling an appointment because her kids are not high risk and the pool for children tested in the trials was small.

“For my younger two, I will be waiting six weeks or more to see how the general public of children do with this vaccine,” she said.

Natalie Swensson, a Murrysville mother of a 5th and 7th grader, said she might have taken a “wait-and-see” approach before the delta variant arrived. She said she will follow her pediatrician’s recommendation.

“The bottom line is I will be getting my child vaccinated at the earliest opportunity,” Swensson said. “We need to do our part to keep kids healthy and in school where they belong. My kids were depressed last year during online learning — we don’t want to go back there.

“The risks of my child becoming severely ill, hospitalized or developing long-term covid issues outweigh any possible risks from the vaccine. … We want the pandemic to end. Vaccination is the best way to make that happen.”

While West Deer resident Autumn Rhodes’ 2-year-old son would not be eligible to get the vaccine if approved, she does not think is it safe for children.

She cited a quote from Dr. Eric Rubin of Harvard University as one reason she believes there needs to be more research done on the vaccine.

Rubin serves on the FDA advisory panel that endorsed the vaccine for younger children, and he voted in favor of approval. During a panel discussion after the vote, Rubin said, “We’re never going to learn how safe the vaccine is unless we start giving it.”

“I don’t believe that is appropriate, to experiment on children like that,” Rhodes said.