How Children’s COVID Vaccines Can Provide New Common Sense to Schools

September 22, 2021 | 11:51 AM

• Avi Wolfman-Arent / Keystone Crossroads
  

  

  Avi Wolfman-Arent joined WHYY in December 2014. Prior to that, he was responsible for the education technology of the Chronicle of Philanthropy nonprofit organization and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Avi first shed light on the radio at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. He has a bachelor’s degree from Haverford College and grew up in the DC area. Despite the latter, he is a lifelong Philadelphia 76er sports fan, devoting the unhealthy part of his conscious thoughts to the Sixers, Phillies and Eagles. He lives in South Philadelphia.

The final piece of the school vaccination puzzle is Pfizer’s Recent announcement Having developed an effective vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years.

But what exactly that means for American educators and parents remains uncertain.

Experts agree that vaccines for young students do not suddenly cause a return to normal pre-pandemic school education.

Neil Goldstein, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Drexel University, said:

However, expanding vaccine coverage may open the door to new reduction strategies to mitigate the virus.

David Rubin, director of the Philadelphia Children’s Hospital Policy Institute, said: “I think we’re heading in that direction. There are some hurdles to overcome.”

The first and most obvious is regulatory approval. Pfizer said it would seek an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration.If that happens quickly and the process takes about as long as the previous vaccine approval process, you can expect your children to start receiving it. Vaccines from mid-October to late October..

The vaccine should be given twice every 21 days. This means that children in this age group will not be fully vaccinated until November at the earliest.

Why the news talked with epidemiologists in the Philadelphia region and asked how this vaccination campaign would be deployed and how it would affect school operations.

Timing is important

Pfizer’s announcement will take place at a crucial time for Pennsylvania and other states in the northeastern United States.

The northeast was able to see a resurgence of COVID during the fall and winter, as it largely escaped the worst delta variant waves that rocked the south this summer. That was exactly what happened last year, before the vaccine became available.

“We see evidence that our own models in the last few weeks of the northern region are already starting to get hot,” Rubin said.

Highly vaccinated areas in the northeast, such as southeastern Pennsylvania, are expected to avoid a surge in severe illness that can increase hospital capacity.

“But that said, we don’t want to test it,” Rubin said.

The delta mutant is more infectious than the previous coronavirus mutant, but evidence does not suggest that it is significantly more likely to cause serious illness in children.Young people still Much less likely than the elderly You will be hospitalized or die of the virus.

However, hospitalizations increase and children can infect others with the virus. Immunizing as many children as possible before the cold weather cools can help reduce incoming COVID waves.

Therefore, some medical professionals believe that communities should set up public vaccination clinics for children rather than relying on individual pediatricians. Speed ​​can be important here.

Carolyn Canusio, a social epidemiologist and associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine, Perelman, said: “We establish a social norm for children to be vaccinated.”

Will the children actually be vaccinated?

It raises the question of whether parents choose to vaccinate their younger children.

The data suggest that major hurdles await.

so August poll by Kaiser Family FoundationOnly a quarter of parents with children aged 5 to 11 said they would be vaccinated immediately. The same number said they would never get their children vaccinated with the COVID vaccine. Multiple parents (40%) said “wait and see.”

In general, young people are less likely to be vaccinated.

In Pennsylvania Only about 42% of people between the ages of 15 and 19 Fully vaccinated. However, in Color County around Philadelphia, vaccination rates for that age group range from 50% to 61%. Pennsylvania figures do not include Philadelphia data.

And the experts are frank: it would be a challenge to convince some parents to vaccinate their children for illnesses that are unlikely to make them seriously ill.

“Children are clearly more sensitive and get sick. They just don’t get sick or have the consequences that adults have,” Goldstein said. “This causes some parents to say,’Oh yeah, in this case, you don’t need to vaccinate your child.'” And it’s a difficult place for public health to enter. “

Adding another layer of complications is the fact that the Pfizer vaccine can cause rare heart disease in some young men-the risk isSeems to be higher for those infected with the virus itself..

Even the best scenario for epidemiologists seems to still have a significant proportion of students attending unvaccinated schools for the foreseeable future.

The future of face-to-face education

By the beginning of 2022, schools could address the reality that everyone in the building was offered vaccine options, but some schools are against it.

The question is how to proceed from that point on.

From here, opinions begin to diverge among parents, educators, managers, and even healthcare professionals.

Most in the scientific community believe that face-to-face schools should continue unless there is a significant change in COVID frequency or pathogenicity.

However, some experts, such as Cannuscio at Perelman School, have cautioned against eliminating interventions such as masking, quarantine, and ventilation.

“Determine your mind throughout the year to consider using mitigation measures,” Cannuscio said.

There are two claims for her.

For one, she believes that community communication needs to be much lower before schools can ease their approach. Second, I’m worried that rollbacks can send the wrong signal, making it difficult to reverse the course if necessary.

Cannuscio points to a change in guidance on mask use for vaccinated people by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Initially, authorities said vaccination could remove the mask, but then Changed recommendations Because the delta has begun to surge.

“Suddenly we established a social norm that we wear masks indoors, in public places, or at meetings. People stopped it, and it was premature,” said Canusio. ..

Pennsylvania authorities have primarily adopted Canusio’s logic. For example, high school students are eligible for the vaccine for months, but the State Department of Health’s Maskman Date applies to all schools, regardless of student age.

David Rubin of CHOP Policy Lab sees (at least in some areas) the way schools begin to rethink their approach to COVID mitigation.

The area has large pockets with low community infections and high vaccinations. Those pockets should have the freedom to change their policies. Interventions such as masking, tracing, and quarantine can interfere with instruction and school operations.

In other words, these policies come with costs. Schools should not absorb them if the risk of the community is low.

“Ultimately, we’ll treat this more. We hope it’s like the flu, which is less pathogenic by vaccination,” Rubin said. “We are not going to rule out communication. This is to manage it.”

For example, on the issue of quarantine, Rubin should consider a test-to-stay policy that will allow students to stay in school as long as close contact with COVID-positive students is negative for the virus test. I think.Recent research Lancet They suggested that those policies could be as effective as isolation. Rubin believes that increasing vaccination among children only reinforces the debate on this less destructive approach.

Rubin also believes that if all age groups in the school community can be vaccinated, the state government should change their trends. He believes the state should let the school district make its own mitigation decisions, except in scenarios where COVID infections can overrun hospitals.

“I think we need to be careful to recognize that there are mistakes in local decisions and personal choices in our country,” Rubin said.

But the debate is still months away, as schools are worried about FDA approval and the final vaccine rollout.

Keystone Crossroads is a state-wide report collaboration of WITF, WPSU, and WESA led by WHYY.This story originally appeared https://whyy.org/programs/keystone-crossroads..