Parents, ask all your vaccine questions
Today, I am writing to you: the undecided parent.
First, I want to emphasize that you should not be embarrassed of your hesitancy. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 under an Emergency Use Authorization, making it possible for every American above the age of 5 to now access this lifesaving marvel of science. Even so, you have every right to ask questions. I encourage you to be honest with your pediatrician about your fears.
Our job as parents is to protect our children, and it is in our nature to be cautious about things we do not fully comprehend. My goal today is to help you better understand the COVID-19 vaccine and explain why it is safe for your child.
Scientists have been studying mRNA vaccines for decades, and as the pandemic unfolded, they quickly applied their research to develop an mRNA vaccine specifically to work against the SARSCoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19. Everything we know — thanks to years and years of research — indicates the mRNA vaccines are extremely safe. Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine, which is currently the only COVID-19 vaccine approved under EUA for these younger kids, uses this mRNA technology.
It works like this: after the vaccine is injected into the muscle, the mRNA (short for messenger RNA, because it carries a “message”) instructs cells inside your child’s body to make a spike protein almost identical to the spike protein found on the coronavirus. Once the body begins manufacturing this spike protein, your child’s immune system will respond in the most natural way: exactly as if it was infected with a natural virus. Your child may get side effects like fever, chills or body aches — all signals that their immune system is healthy, strong and creating antibodies to fight the spike protein without making your child actually sick. Now, your child’s body has a blueprint written into their immune system, giving them the tools to fight the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the future.
The basic idea of exposing a person to a small amount of a virus in order to build blueprints in the immune system to fight that same virus is the foundation upon which all vaccines are built. In some cases, we use actual live viruses to achieve this goal. But with mRNA technology, we aren’t using live coronavirus; rather, we use just one tiny molecule designed specifically to spark the creation of that spike protein. That one molecule, the “messenger,” is wrapped in a biodegradable sheath made of lipid nanoparticles — essentially, fat cells — to help it safely inject into the body. Immediately after, however, those lipid nanoparticles begin degrading inside the body and are carried out with the rest of the body’s cellular waste. In fact, all traces of the vaccine, including the mRNA, are cleaned out of the body through its natural processes within 48 hours of first entering the muscle, except for the spike protein that has been created.
All that is left in your child’s body are the tools necessary for them to protect themselves from the SARS-CoV-2 virus, should they need that protection.
I know that some parents are concerned about potential longterm side effects from the vaccine, especially since many kids only experience minor side effects after actually contracting COVID-19. Because the mRNA does not stay inside the body, long-term side effects are highly unlikely. Of course, there are potential side effects to everything we do. The most common potential side effects seen in clinical trials of children in this age group after vaccination were similar to those seen in the 12- to 16-year-old age group, which were mild and included pain at the injection site, fatigue, fever, chills and muscle aches.
As a medical professional who is familiar with the worst-case scenarios related to a COVID-19 infection, I can tell you that the very small potential risk from the vaccine is nothing compared to the severe illness and even death that COVID-19 can bring. According to the CDC, nearly 2 million kids ages 5 to 11 have contracted COVID-19 in the United States. Among those, 8,300 have been hospitalized and 173 have died. Severe illness and death are rare in this age group, yes. But even without any underlying medical conditions, children sometimes develop high fevers and severe lung infections. They have respiratory failure and need oxygen or a ventilator. They can experience “long COVID” symptoms and fight off illness for months. And they can develop multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C, which can leave their hearts, lungs and other organs inflamed.
Finally, it is worth noting that children in this age group will receive a smaller dose of the COVID-19 vaccine —10 micrograms versus the 30 micrograms recommended for ages 12 and up. This smaller dose accounts for smaller bodies, and it was just one of the many factors carefully considered during the clinical trials, which provided robust data showing that this vaccine was both safe and highly effective for younger children.
Ultimately, deciding to vaccinate your child against COVID-19 will be your choice. But it’s also a decision that impacts public health. Just like adults, kids can spread COVID-19 to other people, even if they have no symptoms. When we vaccinate our children, we reduce the chance that they will spread the virus to others. By reducing transmission, we can also reduce COVID-19’s ability to mutate into new variants.
The more we do to end the pandemic, the richer our children’s lives can become. It becomes safer for them to once again enjoy sports and sleepovers, vacations and birthday parties — the good stuff that has been fraught with danger for a large chunk of their young lives; we can give them back their precious, fleeting childhoods. I made the choice to vaccinate my own young children against COVID-19 and was among the first in line once it was approved for their age group. (Note: My kids reported a sore arm for a few hours after the shot and no other side effects.) And while I understand that my children’s risk of severe disease or death with COVID-19 is low, my time in medicine has taught me that nothing is certain and even low-risk patients can have bad outcomes. By choosing to vaccinate your child, you are protecting them, your family and your community, all while helping our aching world get one step closer to putting this pandemic behind us.