Most American families with school children have yet to embrace the new, lower-dose COVID shot for kids, with the Kaiser Family Foundation estimating that, as of Dec. 5, only about 17% of 5- to 11-year-olds had received even one dose of the two-dose vaccine.
Counted in that minority is Emma Bouza’s daughter, Ruby, one of the first in their small Iowa town to get the shot. As soon as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration green-lighted COVID-19 vaccines for kids aged five through 11 at the end of October, Bouza rushed her child to the doctor.
“Her pediatrician was probably annoyed because I started calling as soon as it was approved,” said Bouza, whose family lives in Hawarden. “I think it was approved on a Wednesday and by Friday she had it. So, I didn’t waste any time.”
Ruby, 11, has Down syndrome, which puts her at greater risk for severe illness if she contracts COVID.
Bouza said that while many in their hometown have refused to accept the medical realities of the pandemics, that simply wasn’t an option in their house. “We have cut out a lot of activities we used to do,” Bouza said. “It just kind of felt like if we wanted to do something, we were completely on our own because nobody else cared.”
For many families that include kids with Down syndrome or other high-risk conditions, the new shot has been a lifeline, allowing them to emerge from their pandemic cocoons with renewed confidence, observers said.
“I know that there are families that are very much excited with the prospect that their kids have access to another line of protection against COVID,” said James Hendrix, the chief scientific officer for LuMind, a Boston-based nonprofit focused on Down syndrome medical research. “They want to get their kids out of the isolation that the pandemic has brought and they see that the vaccines are a way to do that.”
Researcher: Some families still are concerned about vaccine side effects, which are minimal for most
Hendrix said some families remain wary of vaccine side effects, but based on the evidence his organization has studied, getting vaccinated is much safer for kids with Down syndrome and other conditions than getting COVID.
“You definitely need to have the higher-risk groups vaccinated,” Hendrix said. “Children with Down syndrome should be vaccinated, any child with any kind of compromised immune system should be vaccinated as well, and I think that certainly adults should be vaccinated.”
Kelly Sullivan, a professor of pediatrics at the Linda Crnic Institute for Down Syndrome at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, said that children with Down syndrome aren’t at nearly as high a risk of death from COVID as adults with Down syndrome. Nevertheless, those kids do appear to be at greater risk than their age-group peers. They’re also more likely to suffer severe respiratory distress or need oxygen support.
“It’s more severe across the board,” Sullivan said.
Having substantial chunks of the general population go unvaccinated increases risk as kids gather at school, even for those who have taken the vaccine. Unvaccinated people are statistically more likely to become infected and transmit the virus, and so-called breakthrough infections are possible because no vaccine is 100% effective at preventing illness.
“I don’t think there’s any way around that: The more people that get vaccinated, the more protected we all are,” Sullivan said. “And that certainly includes high-risk populations such as people with Down syndrome.”
Sullivan said the benefits of vaccination clearly outweigh the risks, which are minimal. The first few COVID vaccines approved by the Food and Drug Administration showed some risk of myocarditis, which is marked by chest pains, shortness of breath and other systems. In severe cases, it can cause heart failure and sudden death.
But the Pfizer vaccine recently approved for ages five through 11 is a much lower dose, and no cases of myocarditis were observed during the clinical trials. Sullivan said survey data, so far, have shown that people with Down syndrome are no more likely to have vaccine side effects than anyone else. He and Hendrix both said the new shot appears to be safe for all 5- to 11-year-old kids. But if parents have any concerns they should talk to their child’s primary care physician, they suggest.
“Our medical experts that we work with are definitely supportive of people getting the vaccine. But, of course, there are kids who maybe have allergies or some other reason why they may want to consult with their doctor before they make that decision,” Hendrix said.
Parent: Waiting for the children’s vaccine was frightening
With both she and her husband working full-time, Bouza said her family has had no choice but to send Ruby to school throughout the pandemic. It was a stressful situation made worse because her school did not require masks.
At one point, Bouza said she found out from one teacher’s paraprofessional classroom assistant that Ruby’s homeroom instructor and a student she sits next to both were diagnosed with COVID. A week of watchful worrying followed, but Ruby did not contract the illness, despite that exposure.
“So far, I think we’ve just been really, really lucky,” Bouza said. “Knock on wood. So far, we have been able to keep it out of our house, which I think is a small miracle.”
She, her husband and their older children all got vaccinated as soon as possible to form a layer of protection around Ruby and once Ruby was eligible Bouza said there was no hesitation about getting her the shot as well.
“Any concerns that I might have had [about side effects] were far outweighed by concerns I had with her getting COVID,” Bouza said. “With her history of respiratory issues and having a rather crappy immune system anyhow, my concerns were bigger there. She’s fully vaccinated otherwise. I just didn’t see how this one would be any different.”
Our World in Data has calculated that 58.1% of all Iowans have been fully vaccinated. In Sioux County, where Ruby lives, the rate hovers around 40%, the girl’s mother said. She felt, Bouza said, a bit alone in her anticipation of getting Ruby the shot.
“Around here. it’s really hard for people to understand that I was excited for that to happen, or that there was a certain sense of relief,” she said. “But it was a huge weight off of me, personally, and I guess my opinion is all that matters.”
