Parents find a way to vaccinate their youngest children with the Covid vaccine

Leng Vong Reiff had just received a second dose of the Covid vaccine and pleaded guilty to his two unvaccinated young sons. So she started hitting her keyboard.

Like countless parents across the country, she was looking for a vaccine clinical trial for her child. She managed to find it, sign up, and get a call back.

“They said the Nebraska clinic now opened four hours ahead,” she recalled. Even better, she knew that her sons would be vaccinated in good faith because this was a placebo-free test.

Von Leif, a resident of Clive, Iowa, bundled Logan (9 years old) and Quentin (5 years old) in a car and drove west on Interstate Highway 80 to the clinic. There, the sons received their first injection of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine. They came back for a second shot three weeks later and protected them for the next grade. And they will be back in December for antibody testing.

The family is facing a difficult situation. Today, most schools have reopened after 13 months of distance learning. Due to the establishment of a highly contagious delta variant Dozens of schools across the country are closing classrooms or suspending sessions, Especially in states with low immunization rates.

Forty-eight million children in the United States are under the age of 12 and are not eligible for a vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

And about 252,000 children, including teenagers, tested positive in early September. This is the largest number since the start of the pandemic. Analysis of the American Academy of Pediatrics..

Of the 12 to 17 people eligible to take Covid shots, about 54% have at least one infection. However, public health experts ask whether the FDA’s results from various clinical trials for people aged 5 to 11 and 2 to 5 are worth approving shots for the youngest age group. It will take several months to make a decision.

There are several options other than taking precautions such as wearing a mask, and some parents even require that they practice off-label shots for adults through a pediatrician. The FDA was disappointed on Friday. Authorities warn that “children are not small adults,” and the currently widely used adult doses have not been fully studied for the potential safety risks of infants.

There is no doubt that this summer was particularly targeted at parents, especially after public health experts warned that delta variants were highly infectious, even from vaccinated household members. Children are still less likely to be hospitalized or die of Covid than adults, especially older adults, About 30,000 children I was admitted to the hospital with Covid in August. This is the highest level ever during a pandemic.

According to the report, hospitalization rates for children and adolescents with confirmed covids in mid-August were nearly five times higher than those in late June. Research Released earlier this month by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The report found that the proportion increased almost 10-fold among children from newborns to 4 years of age.

According to the report, visits and hospitalizations to Covid-related emergency rooms increased among children in mid-August. Second CDC study..

Researchers have discovered that geography has played a role. These visits and hospitalizations occurred 3.4 times and 3.7 times more often in states with low vaccination rates.

Parental anxiety fueled the demand for slots in children’s vaccine trials and made few appointments. For example, Pfizer is fully booked for its clinical trial, a spokeswoman said.

As a result, Vong Reiff probably stole Nebraska’s cancellation slot.

The two mothers, Dr. Tina Sosa, did not have to travel far to vaccinate their son at trial. Dr. Sosa, a pediatric hospitalist, was in a fellowship when Pfizer began the trial at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.

Her eldest son, Brandon, 3, she said, had no side effects from the two injections she received in April. “I squeezed his arm and asked if it hurts, and he said no.”

Dr. Sosa then moved to Rochester, NY, where he works at the University of Rochester Medical Center. According to Dr. Sosa, her seven-month-old son, Leo, will begin a trial in Moderna next month, and Brandon will follow up on the trial in Cincinnati via the app and phone.

President Biden announced Thursday’s promotion of vaccine obligations that he needed to develop a vaccine to protect children under the age of 12.

“If you are a parent of a young child and are wondering when and when the vaccine will be available, we strongly support an independent scientific review of the use of the vaccine for children under the age of 12,” he said. Says. Said. “We cannot take the shortcut to that scientific research.”

The three major US pharmaceutical companies that manufacture vaccines are at different stages when it comes to testing children.

Pfizer is currently conducting a single trial for children under the age of 12, spokeswoman Kit Longley said.

The exam involves 4,500 children in the first phase. 750 people aged 2-5. And 750 people from 6 months to 2 years. The second and third stages include 4,500 children.

The company plans to obtain test data for children aged 5 to 11 later this month and may request an FDA emergency use authorization for that age group after further consideration, Longley said Friday. rice field.

Moderna announced on Thursday The company has tried a total of 4,000 children aged 6 to 11 years. The company said it plans to apply for an FDA emergency use authorization for that age group by the end of this year.

According to the company, another application will need to be filed in early 2022 based on the results of a trial of children under the age of five. According to the company’s spokeswoman Colleen Hassy, ​​Modana expects to enroll a total of about 12,000 children.

Johnson & Johnson will begin Phase 3 clinical trials in adolescents aged 12 to 17 and will submit findings to regulators at the end, according to company spokesman Jake Sargent. is.

He said the company is planning several other studies. One includes children from 6 to 11, followed by children from 2 to 5. The other examines children under 2.

Impatient parents looking for off-label adult shots for their children are associated with officials such as Dr. Sean O’Leary, Vice-Chairman of the Infectious Diseases Commission of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Dr. O’Leary, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and the University of Colorado Children’s Hospital, said:

Jennifer McCrom, Cedar Park, Texas, has decided to register her three daughters for trial. Her worries were her 2016 memory of her daughter Miriam being infected with an adenovirus at the age of two and a half. At the same time, her daughter, Naomi, who was only six weeks old at the time, was infected with the pre-Covid coronavirus.

Miriam was taken by ambulance to the Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin. Naomi was hospitalized from the emergency room.

Both girls were connected to oxygen and feeding tubes at the same time, McCrom recalled.

“I said,’I can’t do that again. I can’t let my loved ones or those I know get hooked on one of these things,” said Macklom, a high school math teacher. Mr. says.

So, with the advent of the pandemic, she talked to her pediatrician and all three children landed on the waiting list for vaccine trials. Miriam is now 8 years old, Naomi is 5 years old and Ruth is 2 years old.

Five months have passed. Then the phone rang and McCrom learned that his daughters were at the top of the list to get the Pfizer vaccine at a branch of the Austin Regional Clinic in central Texas.

According to clinic spokeswoman Heidi Sharev, staff weren’t required to hire them because so many parents were interested in the exam for the age group under 12 years old.

Ruth was too young to be vaccinated there. She is currently spending weekdays with McCrom’s parents to avoid the risk of getting the virus in day care.

Miriam and Naomi fired two shots. We don’t know if the vaccine is included because this study required one-third of the shots to be placebo. The children had to wait an hour after the injection and the staff gave them coloring books and rice krispies treats.

Girls learn in early winter if they get a vaccine or placebo. If it’s a placebo, they receive a real shot.

“Participating in the study was very life-changing,” said Macklom. “We actually went camping.”

Vong Reiff, who owns her own marketing company, also decided to bring her son to trial to protect her husband who had surgery and radiation therapy for non-malignant meningioma, she said.

In mid-August, the whole family took a duck boat tour to Maine, Bar Harbor, Acadia National Park, and Boston.

“If the boys hadn’t been vaccinated, we wouldn’t have been,” said von Leif. “For us, getting vaccinated and slowly regaining who we are was a kind of celebration.”