C.D.C. Recommends Covid Vaccine for Younger Children

The risk appears to decline in children 12 to 15, and is expected to be even lower in younger children, experts said at the meeting. Covid itself is far more likely to cause myocarditis, and a more severe version of it, studies have shown.

The C.D.C. has not definitively linked any deaths from myocarditis to vaccination, said Dr. Matthew Oster, a C.D.C. scientist who presented myocarditis data at the meeting. “Getting Covid, I think, is much riskier to the heart than this vaccine, no matter what age or sex,” Dr. Oster said.

Given the millions of Americans who are still unvaccinated, immunizing younger children is unlikely to bring the country to the “herd immunity” threshold — the point at which virus transmission stalls. Still, vaccinating children may help to curtail virus spread by giving the virus fewer entryways into the community.

And it may help to protect people who don’t respond well to the vaccine, such as organ transplant recipients, cancer patients and others with impaired immune responses.

“Too many children have either lost a parent or become orphaned in this pandemic, which is incredibly tragic,” said Dr. Camille Kotton, who cares for immunocompromised people at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Results from the Pfizer vaccine’s trial in children under age 5 are not expected until the end of this year at the earliest. Last week, Moderna said its vaccine produced a potent immune response in children ages 6 through 11 who received half the adult dose.

Moderna requested authorization from the F.D.A. for use of its vaccine in children ages 12 to 17 years in June. The F.D.A. has not yet made a decision on that application, and is reviewing reports linking the vaccine to myocarditis, the company said on Sunday.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/02/health/covid-vaccine-children-cdc.html