A student writer at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, opines that elementary school children, ages 5 to 11, should get vaccinated against Covid-19 now that the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have both approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for this age group.
(screen shot via Maryland Reporter.com/Creative Commons)Pointing out the vaccine’s good test results in this age group, “Administering the vaccine among children ages 5 to 11 years would be a step in the right direction for tackling the COVID-19 pandemic,” Madison Friedman writes in The Eagle Eye student newspaper.
Other student reports tell a more specific tale about the vaccine’s effectiveness, having been published after the vaccine’s approval.
“Vaccine trials for children showed similar results to the adult trials being around 91 percent effective in preventing children aged 5–11 from getting COVID-19, according to the CDC,” writes Madeline Funkey in The Harbinger student newspaper at Shawnee Mission High School in Kansas. “The vaccine side effects were also similar to what was seen in adults—mild, self-limiting, and most common a sore arm—when tested in clinical trials.
According to a report in Maryland Reporter.com, Maryland has given the green light for health care providers to begin vaccinating young children against the novel coronavirus, Gov Larry Hogan confirmed yesterday.
“I know that many parents are relieved and they have been looking forward to this day for many months,” the governor said at a news conference. “And they have already decided to move forward immediately to protect their kids, to avoid unnecessary outbreaks and disruptive quarantines, and to help keep kids in school. I also know there are some parents who want to do what is best for their children but still have concerns or questions that they need answers to.”
He tried to answer some of those questions, but Dr Jinlene Chan, the state’s deputy health secretary, had more details.
“It is a safe vaccine and 97 percent effective at preventing symptomatic infection from Covid-19 among the 5 to 11-year-olds who participated in the clinical studies here in the United States and around the world,” she said, noting the rare occurrences of myocarditis and pericarditis in adolescent boys and young men from both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
