‘I just want the world to go back to normal’
Orangeville 11-year-old battling long COVID can’t wait to get vaccine
The sore throat and cough were just the start of 11-year-old Alyssa Smyth’s battle with COVID-19. After contracting the virus in October 2020, it hit her harder than her mom, dad and older sister.
About 10 days in, as the illness was waning for the rest of her family, Alyssa started to develop rashes and hives on her hands and feet. Over time, the symptoms got more debilitating. She experienced brain fog, joint pain and severe shortness of breath causing her to miss classes and swimming practice.
One year later, her lung capacity has not fully recovered and she still gets mild joint pain, occasional rashes and, curiously, hiccups — what her doctor said is an uncommon “long COVID” symptom caused by inflammation in the nerve that controls hiccups.
For all that she’s been through, the Grade 6 student is eager to get vaccinated and finally get some protection from the virus.
“I want to get it as soon as I can because I just want the world to go back to normal,” Alyssa said from her home in Orangeville, northwest of Brampton. “Because then I know that I’m really safe.”
Health Canada said this week it received a submission from Pfizer to authorize their vaccine for children five to 11, but there is no timeline for the decision. On Thursday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the country will have enough supply to get all kids between five and 11 vaccinated shortly after the decision is made.
The question of whether they should get their little ones vaccinated is one that will loom large for parents in the coming months, not only for those with kids on the cusp of turning 12, but also for people concerned about side effects or whether a child really needs to get immunized.
In the first wave, medical experts noted that children’s bodies reacted differently to COVID-19 infection and usually had good outcomes. But the Delta variant, which is more contagious, led to a surge of infections among children and youth.
And there is now evidence that children can experience long-term complications, a condition the World Health Organization earlier this month formally defined as post-COVID-19 condition. A study released by the Ontario science table last month cited a U.K. cohort study that examined children aged five to 17 who tested positive between Sept. 1, 2020 and Jan. 24, 2021.
It found that 4.4 per cent experienced prolonged symptoms 27 days after their initial infection and 1.8 per cent were still experiencing symptoms 56 days after infection.
Alyssa is one of those children affected by long COVID. Months after the initial infection, she was experiencing chest tightness that affected her ability to swim competitively.
“The physiotherapist could not believe how tight her lungs were. She said her lungs feel like concrete,” Alyssa’s mother, Cathy Smyth, said.
Although she and her mother have now mostly recovered, they are still experiencing some lingering symptoms roughly a year after the initial infection; tinnitus and heart palpitations for Smyth, and continuing shortness of breath for Alyssa.
For Smyth, Alyssa’s continued struggle has underscored the profound impact COVID-19 can have on a child’s health — and the importance of vaccination for kids.
And while Alyssa is eager to get the jab the moment she is eligible, it’s not so simple for her mother, who said they haven’t decided if she should get the children’s dose as soon as it is available or wait until Alyssa turns 12 to get the adult shot.
“Our concern is if she gets a child dose, but then turns 12, do we get the adult dose for the second?” Smyth explained.
Further, because Alyssa is close to 12, she wonders if the children’s dose would be effective enough as it contains onethird of the active ingredient in the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
“We have no concern about side effects … We want to make sure that the dose she would be getting would actually be giving her a big enough immune response to protect her,” Smyth said.
Alyssa was diagnosed with long COVID in December by Dr. Anu Wadhwa, a pediatric infectious diseases physician at the Hospital for Sick Children who has been studying and treating post-COVID-19 conditions.
She said research and clinical experience at Sick Kids suggest post-COVID occurs less frequently in children and youth than adults, but can still come with a long recovery period.
“Symptoms can take months to completely resolve. For children and youth who face a longer recovery period, healthcare resources are required to help support their rehabilitation, medical and psychological needs,” Wadhwa said.
Not all parents of children experiencing long COVID are eager to get their children immunized. Francine Power and her daughter Mia are still experiencing symptoms similar to what Smyth described 19 months after she believes they were infected in March 2020.
Since the initial infection, her daughter still experiences eye irritation and digestion issues.
Power has been diagnosed with long COVID but her daughter has not.
Power said their experience has shown how serious COVID-19 can be.
“We need to continue to protect the kids … I can’t stress it enough to everyone that I talk to. It’s still out there and, yes, most of us are vaccinated and we’re protected, but we can still get long symptoms,” Power said.
Even still, she’s concerned about side effects of the children’s vaccine.
“There’s just too many unknowns. So with her I’m not 100 per cent sure, yet. She definitely won’t be the first one in line to receive it just because I know she does have some natural antibodies,” Power said.
Dr. Anna Banerji, a pediatrician and an infectious disease specialist at the University of Toronto, said there’s currently no reason to believe the kids vaccine will come with serious side effects.
“All parents want to protect their kids. But I think the risk of COVID is much worse than the risk of, for example, myocarditis,” or heart inflammation, which has been reported as a rare side effect of the vaccine, most commonly in teenage boys to young men, Banerji said. It’s reported to occur in about one in 70,000 cases.
As for children who will soon turn 12, Banerji said early studies have tested the vaccine in kids who are 11 and close to 12 and they “seem to mount a good response.”
The bottom line is parents should get their kids vaccinated as soon as the opportunity presents itself, she said. “If my children were of that age I would want them to get vaccinated as soon as possible. Because I’ve seen what COVID can do.”