Some parents excited over prospect of shots for children

MISSION, KAN. >> After more than a year of fretting over her 13-year son with a rare liver disease, Heather Ousley broke into tears when she learned that he and millions of other youngsters could soon be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.

“This day is the best day in the history of days!!! I love this day!!!” she texted, joining other parents and educators in welcoming the news that the Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize Pfizer’s vaccine by next week for children ages 12 to 15.

Ousley, president of the school board for the 27,000-student Shawnee Mission School District in Kansas, plans to get her 13and 15-year-olds promptly vaccinated, then celebrate with ice cream. They have been learning from home with their younger brother since the start of the outbreak.

Pfizer is also anticipating the FDA will endorse use of its vaccine in even younger children sometime this fall. And results are expected by the middle of this year from the U.S. study of Moderna’s shots in 12- to 17-year-olds.

Officials are hoping that extending vaccinations to children will drive down the nation’s case load even further, and allow schools to reopen with minimal disruption this fall.

It could also reassure parents and teachers. While children rarely get seriously ill from the coronavirus, then can still get sick and spread it to others.

Pfizer in March released preliminary results from its study of 2,260 U.S. volunteers ages 12 to 15, showing there were no cases of COVID-19 among fully vaccinated children, compared with 18 among those given dummy shots.

‘Terrifying’

That is welcome news for Robin and Aaron Perry of Sun Prairie, Wis., who have five boys, ages 5 to 17. Their oldest, Cooper, has been battling leukemia, and contracted COVID-19 in November, in what his mother described as a “terrifying” time for the family. The disease spread to the rest of the family.

They pulled through, and Cooper and his parents have since been vaccinated. But his mother can’t wait for her 15-year-old, Reece, and 12-year-old, Tucker, to get their shots, so their brother is as protected as possible.

“It feels like more security around Cooper with a compromised immune system,” Robin Perry said. “It’s just being part of the solution. That’s what excites me the most. It’s an added level of protection. Maybe you can take a deeper breath.”

Educators have already embraced vaccines for students 16 and up, with some scheduling vaccine clinics during school hours, and dangling prize drawings and other incentives.

In New York’s Erie County, prom-themed vaccination clinics were held last weekend, including one with a tropical feel, where health care workers wore grass skirts, and 16- and 17-year-olds went home with gift bags of masks and hand sanitizer. Similar efforts are expected to draw in 12- to 15-year-olds.

Dan Domenech, executive director of the School Superintendents Association, said vaccinating younger students should help parents feel more comfortable about sending their children back to classrooms, and ease concerns among some teachers.

“Say you have a class where every student is vaccinated and so is the teacher. That becomes a very different environment,” Domenech said. “Schools were very pleased when the CDC came out with the 3-foot spacing as opposed to the 6-foot spacing, because that immediately allowed them to have more students in school at one time. This will have a similar effect.”

‘Tired of’ masks

Seventy-four-year-old Pat Shepard, retired Spanish teacher from Lincoln, Neb., who has worked as a substitute during the outbreak, is eager to see eligibility expand, saying students are increasingly resisting wearing masks.

“You are starting to see more and more of them wearing them down below their nose because they are just tired of it,” she said. “And then, too, they want to get out and do more things.”

Keri Rodrigues, a cofounder of the education advocacy group the National Parents Union, said she rushed out to get vaccinated after becoming eligible, but has more trepidation about immunizing her oldest son, who is 13.

She plans to go ahead with it, though, in part because he is demanding it.

“He has cabin fever and he wants to get out,” said Rodrigues, who lives near Boston.

The group’s newly released survey from April of 1,151 parents around the country found that others are also conflicted. Forty percent planned to get their children vaccinated immediately, 22% eventually and 23% never, and the remaining 15% were unsure.