Here & Now

Covid-19 Vaccines for 12-to-15-Year Olds

Julie Willems Van Dijk:

The Pfizer vaccine is 100% effective in preventing infection in children aged 12 to 15. And that is very, very good news, especially since we have seen an increase in cases among children recently. Vaccinating children in this age group will prevent individual illness and help stop the spread among our children and in our communities.

Frederica Freyberg:

The state Department of Health Services says there are some 300,000 12 to 15-year-olds in Wisconsin now eligible to get a vaccine. A month ago on this program our next guest told us it was vital that children get COVID-19 vaccinations as soon as they are cleared to do so. Well as we know, middle school on up are now cleared and shots are already going in their arms. Pediatric infectious disease specialist at UW School of Medicine and Public Health, Dr. Jim Conway, is here and thanks a lot for being here.

Jim Conway:

Nice to be back with you.

Frederica Freyberg:

So what’s your reaction to the ability of the 12 to 15-year-olds now being able to get vaccinated?

Jim Conway:

I’m not surprised but really quite thrilled really that we’re going to finally be able to move in this direction. Since we talked last, we’ve see the proportion of cases related to children has gradually increased to the point where almost about a quarter of the positive tests now in the United States are in children. We recognize as we’ve immunized quite broadly in the older individuals, we’ve now got this very broad, susceptible group of children that are really vulnerable. While they generally do well with the disease, we really feel strongly that every kid needs and deserves to be protected against this.

Frederica Freyberg:

As a pediatrician and infectious disease specialist, what are you telling parents and their children about what they should expect in terms of side-effects?

Jim Conway:

Yeah, I think it’s important that it’s similar to what we’ve seen with other young adults. First dose most people tolerate reasonably well. Maybe 24 hours of a little bit of a low grade fever and achiness. It’s that second dose when your immune system is really ready and primed where you get more of an immunologic response and a lot more flulike systems that can last 48 or 72 hours. I think the one thing people always need to keep in mind is that the reactions do seem to be a little bit more significant if people have previously had COVID. So I think knowing exactly when and if you think you had COVID gives you a at least a reason to pause and talk to your provider because we’re recommending some people wait a little bit longer after they’ve recovered to make sure their immune system has settled down.

Frederica Freyberg:

Other than that, what are you telling people about whether or not it’s worth this age group to get vaccinated?

Jim Conway:

It’s really important. I mean from an individual standpoint, everybody deserves the opportunity to be protected against this. While kids do reasonably well, we’ve had 13,000, 14,000 kids admitted to hospitals, almost 300 deaths already in children. This is the equivalent of like the worst flu season you’d ever see in kids. So while everybody’s focus has been on the older individuals, kids have not come through this unscathed, so it’s really worthwhile to be protected. It’s really also worthwhile from a mental health standpoint. For those of us that have been vaccinated, the sense of relief that you can actually start to really feel a little bit more normal in addition to functioning a little bit more normally is really, really important. And kids have really borne the brunt of a lot of this. Kids aren’t meant to be sitting in front of screens doing virtual school. They need to be together. They need to be able to play sports, intramurals, extracurriculars. They deserve all of that and this is what gets them back, especially for our middle and high school kids.

Frederica Freyberg:

The important bottom line question is how safe is it for children to get this vaccination?

Jim Conway:

Yeah. I think people need to realize that the reason it took a while – you know everybody has been asking for this now for a year – is because it really did need to be studied in a very systemic way. We needed to understand how these worked in adults first and how they tolerated them. And then gradually work our way into these younger age groups. It’s still going to be some months until we’re going to be able to see data from the six to 11-year-olds and the 2-5 year olds. As much as people want to protect as broad a group of the population as we can, we need to be patient and let science work its magic.

Frederica Freyberg:

How do you expect getting younger ages vaccinated will help going into busy, kind of summer activities?

Jim Conway:

I think it’s going to allow them to function much more normally than we had hoped they would be able to. This is part of the season you’re seeing a lot of discussion about changing how masking and socializing works for those who have been vaccinated. This gives this group of people – middle and high school kids – a lot more opportunity to do those things in a lot more normal manner. Looking at the fall and what potentially could be further reemergence of the disease, this is yet another firewall of herd immunity to remove these pockets of susceptibles that are going to then drive transmission and outbreaks.

Frederica Freyberg:

Speaking of masking rules, what do you think of the CDC guidance that says that people who have been fully vaccinated can now go without a mask indoors even?

Jim Conway:

I mean it makes sense from a scientific standpoint. We know that these vaccines are performing even better than we thought they would. The breakthrough rate of people actually developing infections that have been vaccinated is less than 1%. It makes perfect sense because the whole idea of masking really was to protect people that were around individuals who were ill. I think that it’s gotten lost in all the discourse that the mask itself doesn’t really protect the wearer all that much. It really protects others from infected individuals who are coughing and sneezing and diminishes the amount of aerosol they can generate. So it makes sense that once somebody is immunized, a mask really isn’t that necessarily. I think the hard part is both the implementation and the optics of it because we, as a society, have decided that vaccine passports and these kinds of things are not something we’re embracing. So that’s the hard part is the implementation but from a scientific standpoint, it actually does make sense to drop masks for those that are fully vaccinated.

Frederica Freyberg:

With about a half a minute left, Wisconsin has a 39% rate of full vaccination. How encouraged or discouraged are you by that number?

Jim Conway:

I think we’re making good progress. I think we would like it to go faster. But I think also we’ve realized that people really do want to do this in a more convenient way in many places. So you’re starting to see decentralization of these vaccine centers. Trying to get things out into the communities, mobile vaccination teams and then hopefully moving it into primary providers’ offices. There’s a lot of people and understandably so that want to talk about it with their primary care provider and do it if they can in those settings. That’s where I think we’re going to be moving now over these next months.

Frederica Freyberg:

Dr. James Conway, thanks very much.

Jim Conway:

Good to see you.

Frederica Freyberg:

The state Department of Health encourages parents and guardians of 12 to 15-year-olds to schedule a vaccination through their health care providers, community-based vaccination clinics, local and tribal health departments or at pharmacies. You can go to vaccines.gov to locate a site or you can learn more by calling the vaccine hotline at 1-844-684-1064.