Research Reveals Younger Teens Can Get COVID Vaccine by School Reopenings
As of May 18, 2021, some 600,000 young people ages 12 to 15 had received their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to protect them against COVID-19. The Pfizer vaccine was approved for use in these younger teens only the week before.
Kids and their parents had eagerly awaited the day when the company’s mRNA vaccine, previously only studied and pronounced safe and effective for people 16 and up, would become available to them. Pfizer’s is to date the only COVID-19 vaccine to receive United States Food and Drug Administration approval for use in people under 18.
The rollout of the vaccine for this age group ensures that American middle school students can be fully vaccinated with the two-dose shot by the time school begins in Fall 2021.
Children in COVID’s Crosshairs
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, about 14 percent of all current COVID-19 cases in the country have occurred among children. The total number translates to almost 4 million children infected with the disease as of mid-May, 2021.
Researchers have known since almost the beginning of the pandemic that children can contract SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. Statistically, however, only a tiny percentage of children have become seriously ill with the disease, and many sail through its course with no symptoms at all.
Still, the US has recorded more than 240 deaths in children under 18 from COVID over the course of the pandemic. Alarmingly, children in Brazil, where the P.1 COVID variant is rampant, are dying at much higher rates. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention emphasizes that the Pfizer vaccine has shown itself highly effective at guarding against the P.1 and other known variants in fully vaccinated people.
Long Haul COVID Affects Kids, Too
Even without the threat of death to the overwhelming majority of young people who contract the virus, researchers have produced recent troubling reports about just how serious “long haul” COVID can be in youth. Children’s Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, has even dedicated an entire new wing to these young people experiencing the chronic, and sometimes even debilitating, effects of long COVID.
The bizarre and terrifying list of long haul symptoms in adults and children includes extreme fatigue, depression, loss of normal memory functions, and abnormally fast heartbeat. While a number of physicians believe these symptoms can improve or completely resolve in six to 12 months, that time frame is an eternity for a child. For some, for example those with badly scarred lungs, long haul COVID may be their “new normal.”
Additionally, children can also develop a rare but potentially deadly COVID-associated illness called multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C). This condition can cause dangerous levels of inflammation in the heart, brain, and other major organs. School-age children make up the bulk of MIS-C cases.
For all these reasons and more, families with middle school and high school students can now enjoy much more peace of mind when they send their vaccinated children back to school this year.