Covid mRNA vaccines, such as the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, are effective in preventing serious infections and illness and have low rates of serious side effects in young children, according to an article published Tuesday in JAMA Pediatrics, which emphatically highlights the benefits of vaccination as shot absorption remains poor.
COVID-19 mRNA vaccines have been effective in preventing symptomatic or asymptomatic coronavirus infections in children aged five to 11 years, according to a review and research of 17 published studies that covered more than 10 million vaccinated children and more than 2. 6 million unvaccinated children.
The research, which covered the omicron and delta variants, also showed that the vaccines helped stave off severe COVID-19 illness and the threat of hospitalization.
Vaccination has also helped reduce the risks of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), a rare but dangerous, likely fatal, complication linked to covid infections in children.
While most children will experience at least one side effect after being vaccinated, these were mild and resolved within a few days, the researchers said.
They added that severe effects were rare, adding myocarditis, an inflammation of the core muscle.
The potentially serious condition occurred in just 1. 8 million vaccinated people after the instant shot, the researchers said.
In a similar comment, Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrician and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said the low vaccine intake was due to parents’ fears about vaccine protection and confidence that covid-19 was not serious. enough in young children to justify safeguards against it. These two points do not justify giving up vaccination, said Offit, who was not involved in the research. This study demonstrates the protection of available vaccines and the “minuscule” threat of serious side effects such as myocarditis, Offit explained, and “far less devastating in children than in older adults,” children are still at risk for serious and rarely fatal infections. young people deserve to be easy,” Offit wrote.
Covid vaccines for children ages five to 11 were available in the United States for more than a year after the first vaccines became legal in late 2021. The vaccines were created with the same mRNA formula that underlies the vaccines. Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines for adults, whose studies have continually shown their efficacy. Despite the fact that there is sufficient evidence of the benefits and effectiveness of these vaccines in children, which is evaluated in this study, parental hesitancy is highest and acceptance remains low, even when the parents themselves have been vaccinated. According to CDC data, less than one-third of kids ages five to 11 finished their number one set in two shots, and only about 40% gained at least one shot. Boosters are available but have proven equally unpopular: Less than 4% have gained the recommended booster dose to date. The reluctance of parents to vaccinate their children is part of an ongoing climate of vaccine reluctance and skepticism that has fueled a resurgence of diseases like chickenpox and measles in the United States.
Vaccination rates are even lower among children under five. About five percent of two- to four-year-olds and about 3 percent of infants under two have finished their first round of covid vaccines (three for Pfizer, two for Moderna), according to CDC data. Respectively, about 10% and 7% received at least one injection.
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