Registered nurse Clarece Glanville provides Robert Dennis-Garcia, 8, his first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine on the Legacy Occasions Middle in Farmington on Jan. 24. Utah mother and father are being suggested to not overreact to a brand new examine from New York displaying that it took simply over a month for the COVID-19 vaccine to supply kids 5-11 years outdated nearly no safety from getting the virus whereas changing into lower than 50% efficient at maintaining them out of the hospital. (Mengshin Lin, Deseret Information)
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SALT LAKE CITY — Utah mother and father are being suggested to not overreact to a brand new examine from New York displaying that it took simply over a month for the COVID-19 vaccine to supply kids 5-11 years outdated nearly no safety from getting the virus whereas changing into lower than 50% efficient at maintaining them out of the hospital.
“That is one examine. Science may be very a lot one thing the place it is vital to have a look at many items of data earlier than we draw conclusions that straight affect what we’ll do,” state epidemiologist Dr. Leisha Nolen stated Tuesday, including she desires to see what’s occurring in different places earlier than accepting the outcomes.
“Do not take this as absolute truth,” she stated. “Take this nearly as good data that we actually must look into additional.”
Nolen stated the Utah Division of Well being continues to advocate mother and father get their kids vaccinated towards COVID-19, even because the state strikes towards treating the virus extra just like the flu or different endemic illness that continues to be lethal however shouldn’t be as widespread.
“It is all the time good to be ready,” she stated, for an additional wave of COVID-19 that is “fairly sure” to hit in some unspecified time in the future.
And even when the information from New York suggests the vaccines might not cease younger kids from getting the virus, Nolen stated “fortunately, they nonetheless have an inexpensive safety towards hospitalization. We all know that is what we’re actually aiming for, proper? We need to hold children out of the hospital.”
The examine, posted Monday by docs and researchers on the New York State Division of Well being and the College at Albany College of Public Well being in New York, discovered that in absolutely vaccinated kids ages 5-11, the vaccine’s safety towards COVID-19 infections fell from 68% in mid-December to simply 12% by the top of January.
Do not take this as absolute truth. Take this nearly as good data that we actually must look into additional.
–Dr. Leisha Nolen, state epidemiologist
When it got here to stopping hospitalization through the surge of the extremely transmissible omicron variant of the virus over the identical time interval, the 2 decreased doses of the Pfizer vaccine permitted for that age group dropped in effectiveness from 100% to 48%.
For absolutely vaccinated adolescents and youths ages 12-17, the examine discovered the declines in vaccine effectiveness throughout these weeks weren’t as steep, with safety towards an infection dropping from 66% to 51% and safety towards extreme sickness falling from 85% to 73%.
A giant distinction within the vaccine’s effectiveness towards an infection between ages 11 and 12 — the examine discovered within the week ending Jan. 30 that it was right down to 11% for 11-year-olds versus 67% for 12-year-olds — counsel the dimensions of the dose could also be an issue. Kids 5-11 obtain 1/3 the dose given these 12 and older.
The brand new knowledge follows disappointing outcomes from scientific trials of a fair smaller dose of the Pfizer vaccine in kids underneath 5 years outdated. Final month, the Meals and Drug Administration postponed a choice on whether or not to approve the pictures for kids as younger as 6 months outdated till a examine on the necessity for a 3rd dose is accomplished.
Nolen stated it is all the time a problem to find out the correct dosage for kids, and each the brand new examine and the scientific trials help whether or not the quantity of vaccine must be adjusted for youthful kids and booster pictures provided. Presently, booster pictures can be found solely to these 12 and older.
Her points with the New York examine embody what she stated is a better chance that kids who’re vaccinated towards the virus can be examined in the event that they present signs, presumably skewing the outcomes, in addition to the outcomes of house testing not being included since they don’t seem to be reported to the federal government.
COVID-19 vaccinations have slowed in Utah because the peak of the omicron surge right here, when circumstances rose about 13,000 a day and testing websites had been so overwhelmed that Gov. Spencer Cox urged most Utahns with signs to skip the swab and easily keep house till they felt higher.
Presently, 61% of all Utahns are absolutely vaccinated, which means it has been two weeks or extra since their preliminary sequence of pictures — two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or a single dose of Johnson & Johnson. However solely 27% of Utah kids aged 5-11 have gotten each doses of Pfizer, the one selection in the US for these underneath 17.
Nolen stated there’s all the time a priority that questions raised concerning the effectiveness of vaccines in kids may hold mother and father from scheduling their pictures.
“We do need to be certain folks see there’s nonetheless a profit,” she stated, describing the most recent examine for instance of being clear about vaccines. “We’re not hiding knowledge. We’re not making an attempt to bias folks’s understanding. It is on the market.”