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Testing vaccines in teenagers
When it comes to reaching herd immunity, vaccinated teenagers are crucial. But that doesn’t mean developing a vaccine that works for teens is easy.
While teenagers don’t fall as severely ill as often as adults, they become infected at almost twice the rate of younger children. Research also suggests that they can spread the virus widely — to each other and to older family members — because they are often asymptomatic and casual about social distancing.
So far, the vaccines authorized in the U.S. are only for adults, and enrolling teenagers in clinical trials has presented its own challenges. Adolescents can struggle to comply with the strict rules of a clinical study, which requires keeping a symptom diary and showing up to multiple appointments. And smaller studies, to minimize the potential risk to minors, can result in slower turnaround times.
Researchers must also obtain a parent’s consent or permission. Information sessions for each can be protracted and painstaking. Objection by either child or parent terminates the application. And researchers often caution young subjects to keep their participation off social media, because vaccine disinformation and online personal attacks are so widespread.
Pfizer’s trial for children ages 12 through 15 is fully enrolled, and the company expects results in the first quarter of this year, which it will then submit to the Food and Drug Administration for review. Moderna is still recruiting for its adolescent trials, with data anticipated sometime this summer.
The pandemic has upended life for many teens — shutting down in-person school, sports and socializing — and experts are warning of a “mental health pandemic” among young adults in isolation that has pushed many to despair. Some children say signing up for trials is a way to fight back.
Sam, 12, who entered the Pfizer trial at Cincinnati Children’s hospital, said he wanted to participate “because it would be helping science and beat the pandemic.”
He added, “And it was my way of saying thank you to the frontline workers who are keeping us healthy.”
It wasn’t a painless decision. After his second shot, Sam had a throbbing headache, chills and a low-grade fever. His mother said she felt guilty for letting him participate, and she apologized to him. Sam was mystified by her reaction. “I’m so happy,” he replied. “This means I got the real thing!”
A deadly syndrome: About 2,060 children have also contracted a dangerous rare condition related to the coronavirus, multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, which can shut down the heart and other organs. Doctors across the country say they are seeing a striking increase in the condition with more children falling seriously ill than during the first wave of cases in the spring.
My teens are the coronavirus guinea pigs. Sheila Mulrooney Eldred, a health journalist in Minneapolis, wrote about her front-row seat to one of the most-anticipated pediatric trials in history.
The New York Times
Me: The vaccine is not reducing the number of Coronavirus cases, it is the wearing of face masks which is. Don’t be fooled by the blurb about vaccines reducing the Coroanvirus/Covid pandemic and what concerns me is why the Coronavirus is not killed off first, before it becomes Covid?
The Salt Water Man