What you need to know about the Covid vaccine for young children

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has approved two Covid-19 vaccines for children between the ages of 6 months and 5 years.

Millions of US parents, including many of my friends with children under the age of five, crossed their fingers again this week hoping that the vaccine would soon be available to the younger age group.Advisory Board of the Food and Drug Administration Unanimously voted on Wednesday It is recommended that the agency approve the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines in very young children. On Friday and Saturday, CDC advisors gathered and unanimously voted in favor.

rear Multiple delays Pfizer’s vaccine review process expects both vaccines to be available early next week. The Pfizer vaccine is intended for children aged 6 months to 4 years, and the Moderna vaccine is intended for children aged 6 months to 5 years.

Not surprisingly, many parents of infants are asking questions about vaccines and expected developments. I talked to three infectious disease pediatricians and got the answer.

How are the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines different?

Dr. Debbie-Ann Shirley, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Virginia, states that the Moderna vaccine is allowed to be given twice at 4-week intervals. Pfizer is licensed as a three-dose series, with the first two shots placed at 3-week intervals and the third shot given at least 8 weeks later. (Pfizer’s third shot is not considered a booster. Moderna and Pfizer may eventually approve additional booster doses for infants.) Both vaccines are for older children and adults. It is a lower dose than the given vaccine.

Preliminary data released by Moderna in April suggestion Two injections are 51% effective in preventing symptomatic Covid-19 infection in children aged 6 months to 1 year, and two injections are between children aged 2 to 5 years. It was 37% effective in preventing infection. Pfizer insisted The three-dose series was 80% effective in preventing Covid-19 infection in children aged 6 months to 4 years, with an estimate of infection in only 3 children. Was based on.

What are the side effects of vaccines in young children?

Previous data suggest that younger children have less side effects than older children, probably because of lower vaccine doses, Dr. Shirley said. Among children under the age of five, she added, “side effects were as expected for children after vaccination.” Comparing the two vaccines, Pfizer is probably using such a low dose, resulting in fewer side effects overall.

Children on the vaccine trial did not develop heart problems such as myocarditis. A few older children Who vaccinated, Dr. Shirley said, may be because the trial wasn’t big enough to detect rare side effects. Vaccination of a sufficient number of children can occur in some cases, but myocarditis “occurs more often in teens and young adults than in young children,” so many experts say. I don’t expect it. Pediatrician for Infectious Diseases, Duke University School of Medicine. “I don’t think vaccine-related myocarditis will be high under the age of five,” she added. Dr. Kal also noted that the risk of myocarditis is much higher in children vaccinated with Covid-19 than in children vaccinated.

FDA Did not approve The Pfizer vaccine, given twice in February, was not a safety issue, but because it did not work well. (And that is ultimately why the vaccine currently has a three-dose regimen.)

If I have recently been infected with Covid-19, do my children need to be vaccinated immediately?

Children who recently had Covid, according to the CDC Can be vaccinated As soon as they got out of isolation and felt better, Dr. Kal said. However, “it seems rare to re-infect the first few months after recovering from a Covid infection,” Dr. Shirley added, adding that it is not acceptable to wait up to 90 days after infection before vaccination. Not rational.

Still, shoot them faster if cases are increasing in the community, if you are traveling to areas with high Covid rates, or if your child is immunocompromised or has potential risk factors. You may want to, Dr. Shirley said. If you don’t know what to do, “contacting a trusted healthcare provider is a good way to discuss some of these issues,” she added.

Can my child get the Covid-19 vaccine and other vaccines on the same day?

yes. According to the CDC, children Can get At the same time, other inoculations including Covid-19 vaccine and influenza vaccine.

Symptoms of Covid-19 are often mild in young children and can be transmitted by the virus even if vaccinated. What does it mean to vaccinate a young child?

Indeed, Covid-19 is much less risky to children than older children.But over 440 children Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, a pediatric infectious disease doctor at Stanford Medicine, has died of Covid-19 under the age of four since January 2020, a disease that is “one of the top 10 causes of death in children in the United States.” It states that. She chairs a committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics on Infectious Diseases.Also, Covid-related hospitalization rates taller than For children under 4 years old, and for children older than 4 years old, and More than half The rate of pediatric hospitalization for children between the ages of 6 months and 4 years occurs in children with unknown potential risk factors. “I have many friends who are health care providers whose children are admitted to the hospital, and some depend on ICU oxygen, which has no risk factors,” Dr. Maldonado said.

“Vaccines are the most effective way we have as clinicians to prevent patients from getting infected with the severe form of Covid,” said Dr. Shirley. This includes small children.

Will Covid come for you again?

Millions of people who are already infected with the coronavirus may be at risk of catching it again, and their immunity may not last as long as they wish. But there is good news. The second and third infections are shorter and may be less severe than the first, and there are steps that can be taken to reduce the risk of reinfection.

read more:
How long will the Covid immunity last? Will the second illness get worse? How can I get ready?

When summer steals your sleep

There are many things that can affect your sleep during the summer. One is daylight saving time. It is exposed to more sun in the evening and can affect the body’s sleep signals. Warm climates can also make it difficult for our bodies to settle into restorative slow-wave sleep. However, simple strategies such as opening curtains during the day, following a consistent sleep routine, and dimming the lights in the evening can help you close your eyes and improve.

read more:
Why is my sleep messed up in the summer?

Well week

Here are some other stories you don’t want to miss:

Let’s continue the conversation.Please write to me [email protected]..

Good luck!