Short Wave - Teens Ask, We Answer: What's Up With COVID Vaccines?

Episode Date: July 7, 2021

People between the ages of 12 and 17 are now eligible to get the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and health officials expect this age group will soon be able to receive the Moderna one. So, health reporter Pien Huang and Short Wave producer Rebecca Ramirez talked to teens about their questions about the vaccine and what a strange year the pandemic has been for them. Do you have questions about the coronavirus and the pandemic? Email [e-mail] pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Hey, everybody. I'm Ping Huang, a health reporter here at NPR. And I'm Rebecca Ramirez, a short-off producer. And today we're talking with teenagers about the COVID-19 vaccine, which has been on our minds because, hashtag the youth, between 12 to 17 years old, have been eligible to get the Pfizer vaccine since mid-May. But just one out of every three teens and preteens has gotten it.

So we went to the Latin American Youth Center here in Washington, D.C.,'s Columbia Heights neighborhood to talk with teens about vaccines and the strange pandemic year they've had. Are you, Ryan? Yes. Hi, how are you? I'm Patricia. This is Rebecca. Hi, Pink. And the teens that we talked with were really well informed.

Totally. They told us what they're hearing on social media, how they're talking with their friends and families about vaccines, and also the toll that the pandemic has taken on them and on the teens around them. So this episode of Shortwave is that perspectives from three teens about why they are and aren't getting vaccines. And we'll answer some of their questions about it. So the first teen I want to introduce is Ryan Howard. I'm Ryan. I'm 16. I go to August Wilson High School. And Ryan is in the minority. He's super enthusiastic about vaccines.

I got the second joint at the beginning of June. So I had to go up somewhere this takeaway up in Virginia, like on Route 1. And he's also that friend who really knows what's up. Totally. So like right around when Ryan was getting ready to get his shots, Pfizer has two doses, he said he started to hear a lot about side effects, some true, some not. And he was that friend putting in the effort. effort to do a little truth squatting. My friends will send into our group chat and I'll be

like, eh, that's kind of like wrong. And then they'd be like, oh, okay, cool. So what is right here? And what are the possible side effects? Well, to answer the teen's questions, we got an ACE pediatrician and vaccine expert, Dr. Yvonne Maldonado. She goes by Bonnie and she's from Stanford. She says the side effects for most people are minor. So we're seeing that some people get low-grade fevers within a day or so of the vaccination and the vast majority of those fevers are gone within 24 to 48 hours. And some people are experiencing mild flu-like illness. But actually, we have seen that these are remarkably mild and people do very well afterwards. Now, some people have had severe allergic reactions, but Bonnie says they're very rare.

It happens in fewer than 12 people out of every million shots given. and it's treatable. She says that's why people are asked to wait around for 15 to 30 minutes after getting a shot so that they can get help right away if they have a reaction. Now, there is another very rare side effect that's been brought up recently, happening in about 13 out of every million shots given to young people. It's of special concern to young men. And basically, within about a week of getting the vaccine,

a few people have developed chest pains and heart inflammation. Most of the people who have it are hospitalized, but they go home within two days, and they generally are all resolved and better by the time they go home. We do need to follow up and make sure that their heart is still in good shape, three to six months after the vaccination. Ryan and his friends had heard all about this condition, and they were all worried.

Then we looked it up, we were like, oh, it's rare. Okay, cool. Cool, cool. And health experts tend to agree with Ryan. They're saying that the dangers of getting and spreading COVID are worse than the side effects that they're seeing, which even though they can be serious, they are generally reversible and, again, very rare. Still, for some people, my name is Alva. I go to college, senior high school. Just the idea of side effects is enough to make them more hesitant.

Alva Feliz has not gotten the vaccine yet, but she is. is planning to get one because it's required for summer internship she has at Children's National Hospital in D.C. And Alva and Ryan wanted to know how long immunity from the vaccine holds up. I would like to get a response for that. Yeah, me too. I'm wondering, do we have to get a booster shot? Like, later on, like, I'm fine with that. I'm just wondering, do we have to get a booster shot at one point? First, about immunity, Bonnie says that people who were vaccinated way in the beginning appear still to be mostly protected from the virus. So we know that at least nine months of protection, and it appears that there might be protection for at least a year, potentially longer, but we'll know that

by this fall. And as far as boosters go, Bonnie says, not yet. We don't think we're going to need boosters for at least another several months, maybe sometime next year in 2022. And the other thing we'll be looking at is whether we need boosters for the variants. But right now, the data looks like the immune response to the vaccines actually is very protective against the variants also. And even though some people who got vaccinated do still get sick, it's called a breakthrough infection, people tend to not get as sick if that happens. We think that the immune responses to the vaccine and as you get younger are much stronger. And it's happening mostly to people 40 and older. Now, Alba in particular was asking for herself and for her parents.

She'll be the first in her family to get the COVID vaccine, and both she and Ryan found themselves convincing their moms that they should get it too. Yeah, Ryan told us his mom had gotten COVID last summer. My mom got hit with it bad. Like, she was like still messed up like months later with this joint. So like, yeah, that's why I wanted her to take the vaccine especially because I was like, looking up, I was like, oh, people are like getting their side effects that they got from COVID, like taking away after. they took the vaccine. So I think you should take it to, like, help yourself. See, his mom was a COVID long hauler. She had symptoms months after she was infected. And he'd heard that getting vaccinated might help some of those symptoms. And he says it might be. She hasn't been feeling way better.

And she's like way de-stress about not having to wear a mask in public and stuff. Not masking was really appealing to Ryan and Alba, too. Their main reason for getting the COVID vaccine was freedom. They wanted to get out of the house and get back to normal life. They wanted to go to work and hang out. Both of them talked about what a tough year it's been. I feel like it made a lot of people reflect on their own mental health in LA. It made people question their own things. I would try to realize that, like, oh, wait, I'm not okay.

I need therapy. Because when you were at school, you could at least, like, try to distract yourself with other people and friends and, like, do things after school and stuff. I have never seen some of my friends, like, being sad in front of me or showing me their weakness or something like that. But with this pandemic, I have seen a lot of people, like, getting depressed, taking therapy. It's so stressful because teachers, like, keep putting assignments and you barely have help. And that's why you see a lot of people who have, like, straight A's and B's dropped to, like, C's and D's.

So, like, it was pretty stressful. And that personal stress they're talking about was compounded by the fact that communities of color, their communities were hit hard by the pandemic. They talked about losing people and their families and neighborhoods and also seeing adults in their lives. scared, stressed, and out of work. As we know, black and Latiné people are more likely to get COVID because of in-person jobs and crowded living situations. Plus, if they get COVID, they are more likely to die from it, too, because of things like poor access to health care and underlying health conditions not getting treated.

One of the good things that came out of this horrible pandemic is that we were able, as a global community to understand that there are health disparities that exist and racial and ethnic disparities that exist, that people kind of acknowledged but never really understood until they saw what happened in this pandemic. Ryan is well aware of the long history and the ongoing discrimination in medicine. Given these disparities, Ryan told us that he actually trusted the vaccine more. I wasn't really that worried because I saw it. was giving it to rich white people first.

So I was like, I'm cool with it. Because for him as a black person, hearing that the people with some of the most privilege in society were getting the vaccine was reassuring. Which brings us to our third teenager, Alia Mansouray from Fanchift Technology Preparatory Academy in D.C. She has not been vaccinated and she does not want to be. Aaliyah is black and she says she's kind of suspicious of COVID vaccines. Whenever I hear good things about the COVID-19 vaccine, it's just, you. Usually from right people on social media, but then I see people with my skin color with my background,

listening about how their lives have drastically changed since the vaccine. I'm just like, yes, I would be more willing to trust the person listing off all the bad things at this point. Leah's been on TikTok. She says she knows it isn't the most reliable source, but she's still 75% sure she doesn't want to get a vaccine. But she does worry a bit. What is likely to happen if I refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccine, because in my head, one part of me is saying, you'll live it out, you'll be fun about your death, something along those last. Another part of me is saying, or you'll get yourself killed eventually. If you're weighing the risks, Bonnie Maldonado says the younger and healthier you are, the less likely you are to get very sick or die from COVID.

COVID. But at least for adults, one out of every three or four of them does have lingering problems, fatigue or difficulty breathing for weeks or months after the virus is gone. There's less research about this in teens, but they can get it too. And the question is, are you willing to take that risk of getting infected and having those long-term impacts when we don't have any answers to how to treat them, whereas we know we have an answer to how to prevent them? Bonnie says teens should seek out a trusted person to talk to, like a doctor or a community leader or someone at school, and that person could help weigh these risks with reliable information. There's also the CDC's website, cdc.gov, if people have internet access and just want quick,

factual answers. And Alia says she knows that a lot of her resistance is based in fear. There is about a quarter of her, she calls it her logical side, that wants to get the vaccine. You know, I look at the 25%, and I'm just like, this will be for the best. No matter what scenario, I think, for my family, for the people in the community, for, you know, me to enter society. Aaliyah says that part of her is probably going to win out. If a vaccine is required for school or work, she won't be happy about it, but she would push past her fears to get one.

She says she's not too worried about herself, but she does want to be required. to make sure that she's not spreading the virus to other people that she cares about. The older teenagers and the young adults, this is the primary age group that could really make a difference in preventing transmission of the disease. So it is a great idea and it's very unselfish of them to think that. And getting vaccinated is clearly a really important way to contribute to your community on a personal level. You know, Ping, throughout the pandemic, I've carried a of grief and worry. But reporting this episode with you, talking to teens, which I don't have the joy of doing regularly, unfortunately, it was really reassuring. They're hearing and digesting the

news and they're looking for answers and reminding themselves to let their logic win over their emotions. And they are unselfish, just like Bonnie said. One of the other questions we heard was if governments can funnel all of this money into emergency vaccines to fight a pandemic and save lives, why can't everyone in the country get good, affordable health care all the time? Which is a whole topic for another episode. But, you know, the youth are watching us, and they're listening, and they're asking how we can save each other. Today's episode was edited by our empress, Giselle Grayson.

Produced by me. The lovely Indy Kara checked the facts, and Peter Elena did some beautiful audio engineering work. Thank you. Many thanks to Alba, Alia, and Ryan for sharing their thoughts. And to Patricia Bravo and the team at the Latin American Youth Center for hosting us. And thank you, youth reporter Rebecca Ramirez. Oh, thank you, my fellow youth reporter, Ping Huang. Okay, that's it for today. This is Shortwave, the Daily Science Podcast from NPR. Thanks for listening. You know, Rebecca, we aren't really youth reporters. Well, but I mean, we can say it because Ryan says we count as young people.

I'm counting older to like 55 for real.