HHusky
New Fish
While it is true that COVID-19 is far less devastating in children than older adults, children are still at risk of serious and rarely fatal infections. When Pfizer presented the results of its phase 3 study to the FDA in October 2021, approximately 1.3 million children between 5 and 11 years of age had experienced COVID-19,7 and 8600 had been hospitalized.8 A few days later, during deliberations by the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, Sarah Oliver, MD, MSPH, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, compared deaths from COVID-19 to deaths from other vaccine-preventable diseases that had vaccines that were licensed within the past 30 years.9 Every year, prior to the availability of a vaccine, 3 children died of hepatitis A virus,10 8 children died of meningococcus, 16 children died of varicella,11 17 people of all ages died of rubella,12 and 20 children died of rotavirus.13 Between October 2020 and October 2021, 66 children aged 5 to 11 years died of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Now, we had a vaccine that would likely prevent those COVID-19 deaths.
In addition to believing that the disease is not severe enough in young children to warrant prevention, many parents are also concerned about vaccine safety.5 COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are a rare cause of myocarditis, which occurs primarily in young male individuals within 1 week of the second dose. The estimated incidence is about 1 in 50 000 across all age groups but as high as 1 in 6600 in people aged 16 to 19 years.14 The systematic review and meta-analysis by Watanabe et al1 found that the incidence of myocarditis in children aged 5 to 11 years was about 1 in 500 000. Fortunately, myocarditis following vaccination is generally short-lived and self-resolving.
COVID-19 Vaccines in Young Children—Reassuring Evidence for Parents
In addition to believing that the disease is not severe enough in young children to warrant prevention, many parents are also concerned about vaccine safety.5 COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are a rare cause of myocarditis, which occurs primarily in young male individuals within 1 week of the second dose. The estimated incidence is about 1 in 50 000 across all age groups but as high as 1 in 6600 in people aged 16 to 19 years.14 The systematic review and meta-analysis by Watanabe et al1 found that the incidence of myocarditis in children aged 5 to 11 years was about 1 in 500 000. Fortunately, myocarditis following vaccination is generally short-lived and self-resolving.
COVID-19 Vaccines in Young Children—Reassuring Evidence for Parents
