Pediatricians Advocate for Accelerating COVID-19 Vaccinations for Children

The president of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued a letter on August 5, 2021, urging the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to continue working aggressively towards authorizing safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines for children under age 12 as soon as possible.

'Based on the evidence from the over 340 million doses of COVID-19 doses administered to adults 18 and older and adolescents aged 12-17, there is no biological plausibility for serious adverse immunological or inflammatory events to occur more than two months after COVID-19 vaccine administration,' wrote Dr. Lee Ann Savio Beers.

Furthermore, Dr. Beers stated 'While there is justifiable concern about reported cases of myocarditis in younger adults and adolescents receiving an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, these events are extremely rare, and, if they were to occur, they would most likely happen within four weeks of receiving the vaccine.'

'In even rarer cases, this might present at six weeks, but not longer.'

'In addition, data on the severity of reinfections of (SARS-CoV-2 beta coronavirus that cause) COVID-19 do not seem to prime a more adverse immunological response, which lessens the concern that there would be a late negative adverse effect of COVID vaccination.'

'We urge your continued dedication to help ensure that COVID19 vaccines for children can be authorized as swiftly as possible so that children of all ages can benefit from them,' concluded Dr. Beers' letter.

Notes:

As of August 4, 2021, the U.S. CDC recorded 10.1 million children under age 18 had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. This data represents about 51% of 16-17 year-olds and 40% of 12-15 year-olds.

The Pfizer-BioNTech (Comirnaty) COVID-19 mRNA vaccine was issued the first U.S. FDA Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for a vaccine to prevent COVID-19 individuals 16 years of age and older on December 11, 2020. On May 10, 2021, the FDA's EUA was expanded to include people 12 years old. However, the experimental Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine has not been Approved or Licensed by the FDA as of August 9, 2021.

As of July 30, 2021, the CDC reported 'within the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, 716 reports of myocarditis or pericarditis after mRNA vaccination had been received and confirmed since December 29, 2020. Among persons with reported myocarditis after mRNA vaccination, the median age was 26 years, with symptom onset intervals of 3 days after vaccination. 

Additionally, as of July 28, 2021, the United Kingdom Medicines & Healthcare Regulatory Agency had received 478 Yellow Card reports of suspected adverse drug reactions to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, including 149 reports of myocarditis and 129 reports of pericarditis.