Are vaccines for this young population necessary?

What are the pros and cons? I am going to have to make that decision. Ftr, I am vaccinated.

Pro- helps deal with potential negative effects of covid, should the kid get it

Cons- seems unnecessary to give to such a low risk population.

KidDoc said:

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Outside of high risk children I can see no reason to vaccinate under 12. They just don't have severe disease with any frequency and are likely to obtain natural immunity as COVID becomes endemic.

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What about the benefits of hybrid immunity? Not worth it in your opinion?

TelcoAg said:

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KidDoc said:

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Outside of high risk children I can see no reason to vaccinate under 12. They just don't have severe disease with any frequency and are likely to obtain natural immunity as COVID becomes endemic.

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What about the benefits of hybrid immunity? Not worth it in your opinion?

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Nope. I believe that kids will basically get covid every year or two growing up and have excellent long term protection.

Have a 13 year old and I'm on the fence about weather to get him vaccinated or not

My wife and I both have first shots, scheduled to get 2nd next week.

Have a 6 year old and no plans to get him vaccinated at this time.

Aggie said:

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Have a 13 year old and I'm on the fence about weather to get him vaccinated or not

My wife and I both have first shots, scheduled to get 2nd next week.

Have a 6 year old and no plans to get him vaccinated at this time.

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I would be hesitant at 13 but depends on lots of situations too.

Does he have any potential issues? Husky, asthma, moderate/severe allergies, or any other issues? Then yeah, would probably get him the shot.

Barring that, I would not personally be doing it yet. I have a 3 and 5 year old and would not get them the shot even if they approved it at this point because they aren't in an age range where there are any real issues to worry about at all. Our pediatrician agrees with that too.

Brad06ag said:

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Aggie said:

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Have a 13 year old and I'm on the fence about weather to get him vaccinated or not

My wife and I both have first shots, scheduled to get 2nd next week.

Have a 6 year old and no plans to get him vaccinated at this time.

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I would be hesitant at 13 but depends on lots of situations too.

Does he have any potential issues? Husky, asthma, moderate/severe allergies, or any other issues? Then yeah, would probably get him the shot.

Barring that, I would not personally be doing it yet. I have a 3 and 5 year old and would not get them the shot even if they approved it at this point because they aren't in an age range where there are any real issues to worry about at all.pediatrician agrees with that too.

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13 year old has no underlying issues aside from mild allergies

Agthatbuilds said:

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Are vaccines for this young population necessary?

What are the pros and cons? I am going to have to make that decision. Ftr, I am vaccinated.

Pro- helps deal with potential negative effects of covid, should the kid get it

Cons- seems unnecessary to give to such a low risk population.

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WTF why would anyone consider vaccinating a kid under 16...or hell, 20? Outside of someone with health issues or obesity?

KidDoc said:

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Outside of high risk children I can see no reason to vaccinate under 12. They just don't have severe disease with any frequency and are likely to obtain natural immunity as COVID becomes endemic.

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FDA doesn't recommend under 16, correct?

What local school board restrictions? I thought Bryan ISD and CSISD had basically decided against having any restrictions this year. Or do you mean a different district?

KidDoc said:

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Outside of high risk children I can see no reason to vaccinate under 12. They just don't have severe disease with any frequency and are likely to obtain natural immunity as COVID becomes endemic.

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Have you been in touch with your peds hospitalist/PICU/EM colleagues ? I know a couple hospitalist/Peds EM that are anxious for approval below 12. Of course, it may be because they're seeing all sickest COVID kids and have some observational bias. I know they've had to put some kids on ECMO. Seems the ones that get COVID + RSV seem to be doing the worst.

Aggie said:

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Brad06ag said:

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Aggie said:

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Have a 13 year old and I'm on the fence about weather to get him vaccinated or not

My wife and I both have first shots, scheduled to get 2nd next week.

Have a 6 year old and no plans to get him vaccinated at this time.

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I would be hesitant at 13 but depends on lots of situations too.

Does he have any potential issues? Husky, asthma, moderate/severe allergies, or any other issues? Then yeah, would probably get him the shot.

Barring that, I would not personally be doing it yet. I have a 3 and 5 year old and would not get them the shot even if they approved it at this point because they aren't in an age range where there are any real issues to worry about at all.pediatrician agrees with that too.

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13 year old has no underlying issues aside from mild allergies

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I was in the same position as you with a healthy 12 year old with mild allergies and decided not have it done. Her version of Covid was 2 days with the sniffles where she felt perfectly fine the whole time. Even knowing that my kid had an extremely low chance of severe symptoms I was still worried because all we hear about are the exceptions instead of the normal situation where 12 year olds mostly have very mild symptoms.

bigtruckguy3500 said:

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KidDoc said:

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Outside of high risk children I can see no reason to vaccinate under 12. They just don't have severe disease with any frequency and are likely to obtain natural immunity as COVID becomes endemic.

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Have you been in touch with your peds hospitalist/PICU/EM colleagues ? I know a couple hospitalist/Peds EM that are anxious for approval below 12. Of course, it may be because they're seeing all sickest COVID kids and have some observational bias. I know they've had to put some kids on ECMO. Seems the ones that get COVID + RSV seem to be doing the worst.

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Yes I have and well over 90% of hospitalized minors have clear risk factors. I have been very clear that children with any risk factors benefit from vaccine without a doubt.

The data for 5-12 is not yet available for review unfortunately.

KidDoc said:

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TelcoAg said:

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KidDoc said:

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Outside of high risk children I can see no reason to vaccinate under 12. They just don't have severe disease with any frequency and are likely to obtain natural immunity as COVID becomes endemic.

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What about the benefits of hybrid immunity? Not worth it in your opinion?

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Nope. I believe that kids will basically get covid every year or two growing up and have excellent long term protection.

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I guess I just don't know how to square this when if the biggest risk you cite on vaccines for youngsters (based on what we know to date) is elevated risks of myocarditis, how the vaccine isn't worth it when getting COVID also increases those same risks (according to recent studies: https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7035e5.htm?s_cid=mm7035e5_e&ACSTrackingID=USCDC_921-DM64772&ACSTrackingLabel=MMWR%20Early%20Release%20-%20Vol.%2070%2C%20August%2031%2C%202021&deliveryName=USCDC_921-DM64772).

No doubt COVID is going to be endemic but I'm not understanding why vaccination should be disregarded in this age group when, like the vaccine itself, we have no long term data on what infections on youth will produce in maturity.

If you could clarify the risk vs. reward you're calculating here I'd appreciate it (because honestly you Aggie docs on this board have been the best sources of info throughout this entire ordeal).

Couldn't you say the same thing about varicella? What's the point of vaccinating for Varicella if the overwhelming majority of kids do well with varicella infection?

gunan01 said:

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Couldn't you say the same thing about varicella? What's the point of vaccinating for Varicella if the overwhelming majority of kids do well with varicella infection?

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Maybe we know that one is time tested and safe for kids? FDA doesn't recommend for children under 16. I think CDC says under 12.

It's been around for like 25 years. Like covid vaccines, it could prove that waning protection from vaccination increases susceptibility later in life. It's a valid question.

And to add, this doesn't mean I'm against vaccinating chickenpox in any way. It becomes an issue of eradication. If we have the technology to innoculate against coronavirus now, why is it that we should "wait and see" on this one and treat COVID like we did chickenpox before the 90s where our parents had pox parties to make sure we all got it?

There's no wrong answer. Just want to understand what Doc's opinion is on the matter.

gunan01 said:

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Couldn't you say the same thing about varicella? What's the point of vaccinating for Varicella if the overwhelming majority of kids do well with varicella infection?

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We vaccinate for varicella to protect the vulnerable including kids under 12 months of age and those with compromised immune systems. In addition to protect those who either never had disease or are non immune in adults where it can be devastating.

It is the same reason we vaccinate for whooping cough. For school age kids and adults it is a minor illness, for kids under 2 months it is awful.

Same reason for rubella. If a pregnant woman gets rubella, which is very mild, there is a very high risk of a heart defect in children.

None of these vaccines have any significant risk of causing heart inflammation that leads 90% of the people who get it to be hospitalized and 23% of those still have heart dysfunction. I cannot justify a vaccine that has a small risk of heart damage when the risk of the actual disease is about the same. There is a chance teens will get COVID, if I am giving the shot there is a 100% chance they are getting the shot. I think, in teens with NO RISK FACTORS for severe COVID, they should wait on the FDA to complete the data they are collecting looking at single and/or reduced dose specifically due to the myocarditis side effects.

The rate of vaccine-induced heart inflammation in children (news-medical.net)

Quote:

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In a paper recently uploaded to the preprint server medRxiv*, a risk-benefit analysis was undertaken utilizing data collected from the vaccine adverse event reporting system (VAERS) relating to adolescents having received an mRNA vaccine before June 18th 2021. The findings suggested that an alternative vaccination schedule may be most appropriate for males in this age group.

A preprint version of the study is available on the medRxiv* server while the article undergoes peer review.

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ETA: Varicella vaccine does not cause myocarditis or hospital stays either.

TelcoAg said:

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It's been around for like 25 years. Like covid vaccines, it could prove that waning protection from vaccination increases susceptibility later in life. It's a valid question.

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What is this heresy you speak?! Do not question the Covid vaccine! It is 100% safe and only complete loons aren't taking it.

KidDoc said:

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Yes I have and well over 90% of hospitalized minors have clear risk factors. I have been very clear that children with any risk factors benefit from vaccine without a doubt.

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Any chance you might be able to clarify just a touch? When you say "clear risk factors", are we talking one or multiple serious risk factors?

For example, say someone has a 14-year old boy that has moderate, but controlled asthma (daily meds, etc). But he is also an active, high school sports playing athlete without any other typical risks you read about with adults (overweight, immune compromised, high bp, etc). I've been hesitant to vaccinate my teens in regards to covid, but also haven't closed the door upon it if the the risk/reward (and peace of mind) is in the vaccinations favor.

ANY risk factor: BMI > 85% for age, Asthma, CP, CF, Cancer, autoimmune disease, Diabetes, heart defects.

SB 43rd STREET OG said:

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Y'all should definitely NEVER let your kids drive. Or even take public transportation. Only let them bike in the front yard with helmet on.

Statistically they are at MUCH greater risk doing all of those things than dying from Covid. Let them get immunity!

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God forbid you ever let them go swimming again. A lot more dangerous to them than covid.