14 Time June 20/June 27, 2022
NEWS TICKER
must use
standard USB-C
connectors by fall
2024—a blow to
Apple,Russian cargo ships
are setting sail
filled with plundered
Ukrainian grain.Gunmen who murdered
at least 50 people,
including children,
during a service at
a Catholic ChurchGOOD QUESTION
When should kids get
COVID-19 boosters?STudieS have Shown ThaT immuniTy
from the COVID-19 vaccine wanes in kids,
just as it does in adults. But a booster re-
stores protection from the most serious
consequences of COVID-19 to 80% to 90%
in kids as young as 5.
Because of that compelling evidence, ex-
perts say kids ages 5 and up can and should
get boosted. On May 19, the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
authorized and recommended the Pfizer-
BioNTech booster for this age group. (Pre-
viously, only kids ages 12 and older were
eligible to get boosted.)
With cases of COVID-19 rising in most
parts of the country, doctors are urging par-
ents to get their children vaccinated and
boosted as soon as possible, in-
stead of waiting until the start
of the school year in the fall.
“When there is enough virus in
the community—which there
is now—and the risk of get-
ting infected becomes higher—
which it is now—delaying vac-
cination makes no sense,” says
Dr. Stan Spinner, chief medi-
cal officer and vice president
of Texas Children’s Pediatrics
and Texas Children’s Urgent
Care. “Kids are out and about, fewer people
are wearing masks, kids are going to camps
and play groups, so they are going to get ex-
posed during the summer. Why wait to im-
munize your child?”Kids ages 5 to 11 should get a booster dose
five months after finishing their primary
COVID-19 vaccination series of two shots,
the CDC says. For children in this age group,
the Pfizer-BioNTech booster is one-third
the dosage of the adult booster. For chil-
dren ages 12 and up, the booster is identical
to their primary- series shots (which is the
same dosage given to adults).
The CDC recommends a slightly different
regimen for children with weakened immune
systems. Their primary series is actually three
doses instead of the two for other children,
which gives them the strongest immune re-
sponse possible and can reduce their risk of
being hospitalized or dying from COVID-19.
The CDC also encourages booster shots forimmunocompromised children—which
would be a fourth dose—based on their age.
Children ages 5 to 17 years old with weak-
ened immune systems should get a booster
dose three months after receiving their three-
dose primary series. Immunocompromised
children ages 12 and older should also get
boosted a second time—a fifth dose—four
months after the first booster dose to keep
their immune responses as active as possible.
Studies have shown that the Pfizer-
BioNTech vaccines and boosters are safe
in children. Research has found that a very
small number of older kids have experi-
enced multisystem inflammatory syndrome
(MIS-C), a rare disorder in which the
body’s immune system generates an aggres-
sive inflammatory response, after getting
vaccinated, and MIS-C is currently listed
as a potential adverse event in the CDC’s
vaccine safety monitoring system. But it’s
not clear whether the vaccine is associated
with the condition, or whether
the children developing it have
also been infected with the
virus—since SARS-CoV-2 itself
is linked to MIS-C.
The vaccines have also
been associated with a small
number of cases of inflamma-
tion of heart tissues—called
myocarditis—mostly in ado-
lescent males. But children are
far more likely to experience
myocarditis from COVID-
itself than from the vaccine, which is why
the CDC continues to recommend COVID-
19 vaccination for children, based on the
evidence that the benefits of immunization
outweigh these potential risks.
Health officials have not determined
whether children (or adults, for that
matter) will have to continue to receive
boosters every few months. But public-
health experts at the CDC are reviewing
the data to answer this question. So far,
every authorized COVID-19 vaccine has
been developed using the original strain
of SARS-CoV-2. Fortunately, they’ve re-
mained effective at generating strong im-
mune responses to the different viral vari-
ants. But vaccine makers have recently
developed new, not-yet- authorized shots
targeting the latest variants, including
Omicron, and are studying whether those
might produce even stronger, and hope-
fully longer-lasting, protection against seri-
ous disease. —aLiCe PaRK‘Delaying
vaccination
makes no
sense.’
—DR. STAN SPINNER,
CHIEF MEDICAL
OFFICER AND VICE
PRESIDENT OF
TEXAS CHILDREN’S
PEDIATRICS