Consider This from NPR - Young Kids Are Now Vaccine-Eligible. Why Doctors Say Parents Shouldn't Wait

Episode Date: November 4, 2021

The CDC made it official on Tuesday: kids 5 - 11 are now eligible to receive Pfizer's COVID-19 pediatric vaccine. Within hours, some of the first shots were administered in Hartford, Connecticut. Jenny Brundin of Colorado Public Radio spoke to parents and kids in Denver about getting a shot. While some are eager, others want to 'wait and see.' NPR's Allison Aubrey and Selena Simmons-Duffin wrote about why pediatricians say it's better not to wait. Read their piece: Some parents want to wait to vaccinate their kids. Here's why doctors say do it now. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

This message comes from Indiana University. Indiana University is committed to moving the world forward, working to tackle some of society's biggest challenges. Nine campuses, one purpose. Creating tomorrow, today. More at iu.edu. No, the boy shook his head. It did not hurt. Well, that boy was one of the first kids under 12 in the country to get a COVID-19 vaccine. I'm going scared. No, I am. I'm going scared.

It happened at Hartford HealthCare in Connecticut, hours after the CDC made things official Tuesday night, authorizing a Pfizer vaccine for kids ages 5 to 11. You know, this was such a celebratory moment. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky made the final call after recommendations by two different advisory panels at the FDA and CDC. She told NPR the next day those panels reviewed data that say the kids vaccine, which is one-third the dosage of the adult version, is 91 percent effective. It is safe. In fact, in clinical trials, including several thousand children, there was not a single case of a severe side effect from this vaccine.

Public health officials believe it is not just kids who will benefit. Getting them vaccinated could help keep the pandemic on a downward trajectory as the U.S. gets closer to winter and with more than a thousand Americans still dying from COVID-19 every day. And that's too high. So we are really asking people to do the hard work of getting themselves vaccinated, getting their children vaccinated, and continuing to practice those prevention strategies that we know work. Consider this. 28 million kids are now vaccine eligible, and pediatricians tell NPR parents and caretakers should not wait to get kids a shot. Coming up, we'll hear from children and their parents about that decision. From NPR, I'm Mary Louise Kelly.

It is Thursday, November 4th. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today or visit WISE.com.

T's and C's apply. It's Consider This from NPR. Just like for adults, vaccines for kids will make it possible to get out in the world with a lower risk of infection. Do you want to go bowling? Yes. Or to the movies? Movie. What about doing kindergarten without a mask? Kindergarten without a mask. That is five-year-old Chloe and her mom, Sarah Morrison, from Asheville, North Carolina. Chloe, do you want to talk about why it's important to get the coronavirus shot? So you don't get sick.

Sarah told NPR she plans to get Chloe the vaccine so they can feel safer doing the fun stuff they used to do as a family pre-pandemic. Chloe is on board. Chloe, what would you tell other little kids who have to get the coronavirus shot? That it's okay if you cry. Yeah.

It will feel like a little pinch. Yeah. Do you think you'll cry when you get it? Yes. Yeah, but what else will you be? Brave. Yeah. Are you brave?

Yes. For Chloe and millions of kids across the country, the vaccine should be rolled out at full capacity by next week. It'll be two shots, three weeks apart, just like the adult version of the Pfizer vaccine. And it will be available at more than 20,000 sites across the country, CDC Director Walensky told NPR. So we're distributing the vaccine to pediatricians' offices. It'll be in pharmacies. It'll be in federally qualified health centers. And that's where people are getting their children vaccinated.

Pediatricians and scientists say it is better not to wait to make that call. While most childhood COVID cases are mild, at least 170 children in the U.S. ages 5 to 11 have died from the disease. And pediatricians point to real-world data on the effectiveness of vaccines in older kids between 12 and 17. For instance, amid the recent Delta surge, hospitalization rates were about 10 times higher in unvaccinated adolescents than vaccinated ones. And it is true, a lot of kids have already been infected. By one CDC count, as many as 38% of kids age 5 to 11 have antibodies. But scientists don't fully understand how long those antibodies last or how protective they are. And there are some very good studies in adults, albeit not in children, but in adults, that if you get infected and recover from the infection

and then get vaccinated, the level of your protection is dramatically enhanced. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House's chief medical advisor, he spoke to NPR this past week. He addressed one question parents and caretakers might have about a vaccine side effect called myocarditis, or inflammation in the heart. It was not seen in Pfizer studies of its vaccine for 5 to 11 year olds, but there have been rare cases of it in older kids, more boys than girls. The myocarditis that has been seen as a rare adverse event predominantly in young men, not generally as young as 5 to 11, but there certainly could be

some overlap there. So it's something that you pay attention to. In most instances, kids with the condition improve quickly. And importantly, it can also be caused by COVID itself. COVID can also lead to heart problems in kids with something called MIS-C. That stands for multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children. It's a condition linked to COVID-19 that can send children to the ICU. More than 5,000 children and teens have developed it, and the median age of kids with MIS-C is nine years old. When the FDA looks at the data and they do a risk-benefit analysis, which is what is the risk of getting COVID-19 and getting a serious outcome versus the risk of getting the adverse event from the vaccine, they determine very clearly that they weigh very heavily towards the benefit as opposed to the risk. According to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey, when it comes to vaccinating their kids,

there are three types of parents. About a third are eager to do it ASAP, a third have more of a wait-and-see approach, and a third say no, not now, not ever. Colorado Public Radio's Ginny Brundine found parents from all three of those groups in Denver, where she also spoke to some of their kids. The first kid I ask about whether or not he'll get the COVID vaccine is John Thomas Barton IV. What was that again? John Thomas Barton IV. That's John Thomas Barton IV, who is in fourth grade and has already had four other immunizations. Four, so I already know what the pain's going to feel like. I really want to get this vaccine because then I know if anyone has COVID, I won't, my system will be able to fight it. A recent poll by Ipsos shows two in three parents of 5 to 11-year-olds plan to get their kids vaccinated.

Cree Mortensen is not one of them. It's just not something I trust right now. Maybe later, but not right now, no. Mortensen says she's researched the vaccine and has thought a lot about it. She got COVID once. Her vaccinated mom got a breakthrough case three months ago and is still having trouble breathing. But to Mortensen, that just means... I'm gonna get it either way. Like, you know, it's like the flu, so... But she says she won't stop her son, who's in second grade, if he wants the vaccine. I head to another park.

Cerulean, Jaquille, come here real quick, baby. Javier Toussaint is vaccinated. He has five children. He's frustrated that some people won't listen to the experts, the scientists and doctors. He says he'd never argue with his mechanic. If I take my car in there and he's like look transmission is shocked and i don't even know how you made it here i'm not going to sit there and be like that's my pistons and so i'm not with people doing that to doctors doctors have helped out his 11 year old who has the sickle cell trait she's healthy but has had her spleen taken out which is

part of the immune system as soon as they make it available for somebody in her spectrum, immediately. The Ipsos poll shows Black parents are significantly more concerned about their kids getting COVID than whites. Toussaint says he wishes more people understood that some things we do are for the community, just like this playground. Parents like Katie Evans agree. She says children aren't politicizing this. Adults are, by insisting. Either I'm right or else. And that's not how a community works together. To protect our kids, we're putting our egos in front of our children's futures,

and I don't think that's right. For her, vaccines will keep children learning inside schools and will lessen teachers' anxiety. You know, not having to go home with this anxiety every single day about which kid brought COVID to school today. Chevelle is her nine-year-old daughter. I'm not a big fan of needles, but I do want to be more safe, so I don't really know what to say. Like, maybe half and half. But she says she knows it will keep her safe. She'll eventually get it. Probably not right away, right away. But a bit she knows it will keep her safe. She'll eventually get it.

Probably not right away, right away. But a bit down the road, her mom agrees. They'll wait a bit to see how the rollout goes. I got you! I got you! I got you! Other parents seem overwhelmed by the avalanche of opinions swirling around. So much so, they've just withdrawn. We don't really think about the COVID. Because I think it sucks you in. Like it makes you nervous.

It makes you scared if you watch the news. It's just chaotic. Juanita Gonzalez, a mother of a 10 and 12-year-old, says she feels better not engaging. She wants to wait until she feels 100% certain. When I make that decision for my family to get vaccinated, I want to feel comfortable for myself and for my family. Not because everybody else is doing it, not because hurry, hurry, do it, you know. For other kids and families, they are ready now because it's a chance to get back to normal. For the past year and a half, some families have done everything except school outside.

No movies, no restaurants, no indoor playdates. Here's 10-year-old Vivian Jones quizzing her friend Esther Colburn, also 10. What do you think you're going to do after you get both vaccines? Have a sleepover, paint my nails, and get my ears pierced. Do you think you're going to go to friends' houses after you get the vaccine? Are you asking this because you want a sleepover? Whether it's about the sleepovers or to keep rising numbers of kids out of the hospital, 28 million children will be waiting for their parents or guardians to decide.

Jenny Brundine of Colorado Public Radio. A lot of what you heard earlier this episode came from the work of our colleagues at NPR's Science Desk, Carmel Roth, Alison Aubrey, and Selena Simmons-Deffin. They have a really thorough write-up of everything you need to know, answers to all your questions about young kids and the vaccine. There's a link to that in our episode notes. It's Consider This. From NPR, I'm Mary Louise Kelly.