Why Kids Aren't Eligible to get the COVID-19 Vaccine

Authored by Dylan Wakeley

COVID-19 Vaccines have begun to roll out all across the US, yet children are being left out from getting the vaccine. You may ask, why is that? Why are kids not able to get something that has been stressed to the rest of us as extremely important? In this post I answer that.

Why adults first

Adults were and are the first people to get the vaccine. As the roll out started, it started with essential workers and others that were high risk. Now, it has moved to almost everyone. I have even got my vaccine and I am 20 years old. From what we know about COVID-19 and the way people get affected by it, children are known to be among the least effected. They are hit with similar symptoms as adults but less severe. Symptoms include but are not limited to cough, fever, sore throat, and runny nose (Nogrady). I know many adults who are high risk and have gotten the vaccine before a lot of people because of it. 

In a country that got swept off its feet because of COVID in a matter of weeks, speed was a necessity in order to get the nation back on its feet. When children are used in clinical trials, the trials will often have more layers of protection to go through as Dr. Esper, who is a Pediatrics Infectious Disease Expert, explains. Esper goes onto explain that protection and safety are of the utmost importance in clinical trials of a vaccine. He says children are "a special and vulnerable population and we try to protect them because they can't make decisions for themselves." I will revisit the marginalization of this quote later, but to continue, kids are not as developed and are more vulnerable medically than that of adults. Ironic that this is the case most of the time, but for COVID-19, they seem to be among the least affected. Nonetheless, the combination of adults being more affected by the disease, children not being as affected, and the problems with including kids in trials led to the decision to only focus on adults (16-18 and up). Speed was needed in these trials and including kids would only have slowed the trials down.

Kid's Immune Systems

The aforementioned Dr. Esper went onto explain that children have very different immune systems than adults. There is a lot of unknown with this disease and varying immune systems for children are enough cause to delay the making of a vaccine for children until more is known. "Children's immune systems are growing up just as they are," says Dr. Esper. "We often split kids up by age groups and stages. We can't just say all kid's immune systems are the same at any given age." 

So, you combine all of this and look at the data that children are less than 3% of COVID-19 hospitalizations and less than 3% of deaths, medical experts decided to focus on vaccines for adults first. (Nogrady).

When will kids be able to get the vaccine

As I stated previously, since there are more protections and more concern with safety, vaccine for children will take longer to roll out. The trials for children's vaccines are ongoing. The first 3 companies to roll out vaccines for the adult population are also have studies/trials for children underway (Mukherjee). Moderna has begun testing 12 and older, Pfizer has begun test 12-15 year old's, and Johnson and Johnson will launch trials for infants and newborns in the coming months (Mukherjee). This means that kids will eventually get vaccinated but vaccines for them are much more complicated to make and need as much research and data as possible. Dr. Fauci, a lead medical expert in the US, believes children will be waiting till the first few months of 2022 to be eligible for a vaccine (Mukherjee). While this is not that far away, it would still be a year or so after adults were eligible. 

In addition, from all the research I have done, everywhere I seem to go for information, there is one thing that always pops up, how children's immune systems are different. Also, how they are a challenge and need to be more cautious in vaccine development. I will list different quotes from a few articles that stress this,

• "The biology of a 14-year-old won't be the same as that of a 6-year-old, hence the need for precautions," explains Sy MukherJee.

• "Children need to be studied separately because they're not just little adults. They react differently to immune challenges," says Dr. Melanie Swift, co-chair of Mayo Clinic's COVID-19 Vaccine Allocation and Distribution Work Group.

• “We want to take extra safeguards to protect them from injury. We tend to just be a lot more cautious about enrolling children in studies and not exposing them to undue risk,” explains Beth Thielen who is a pediatric infectious disease specialist at the University of Minnesota.  

• “Children’s immune systems are growing up just as they are. We often split kids up by age groups and stages. We can’t just say all kid’s immune systems are the same at any given age,” says Dr. Frank Esper, a pediatric infectious disease specialist.

Moral of the story: getting safe vaccines for children will require more time, research, and data than that of a vaccine for an adult.
Another side of this coin, is focused on herd immunity. Herd immunity is when enough people are immune to a disease where its spread becomes unlikely. Usually to achieve herd immunity, there have to be mass vaccination roll outs. This even includes children. While children may be less at risk for the disease and having serious side effects, they still play a role in transmitting this virus to other people. Children have a more difficult time than adults in relation to following guidelines for distancing and other measures as Dr. Morris states. So, should the push for the vaccines for kids go faster because herd immunity can be achieved? The answer depends on what you believe yourself. Top medical experts, as stated previously, believe that the time that takes to make the vaccine is worth it to keep the kids safe. Herd immunity will be achieved but not yet.
Marginalization of Children

Herd Immunity

I stated earlier in this post that I would talk more about a quote from Dr. Esper. To help you from having to scroll up, here it is, Dr. Esper says, "Kids are a special and vulnerable population and we try to protect them because they can't make decisions for themselves." He says this when describing children in relation to a vaccine. This quote I found when I was doing research for this post made it easier to bring of the topic of the marginalization of children when it comes to the vaccine. Marginality is defined by Joachim von Braun and Franz W. Gatzweiler as “an involuntary position and condition of an individual or group at the margins of social, political, economic, ecological, and biophysical systems, that prevent them from access to resources, assets, services, restraining freedom of choice, preventing the development of capabilities,” (Braun, Gatzweiler). You may ask how does this relate to vaccines? 

Well, you do not see kids being able to make these decisions for the vaccines for themselves. They are constantly having decisions being made for them and this vaccine is another example of that. The quote from Dr. Esper is a perfect example of that. If children are always believed of not being capable of making decisions for themselves then when will that stop. That is why I believe, in relation to the COVID-19 vaccine, children are being marginalized. Adults and medical experts do not have them weigh in on the topic because they do not think them capable of making a decision like that. 

So, going back to the definition of marginality, children are not given freedom of choice and are being restricted from access to a vaccine that is completely involuntary on their part. They are not a part of the decision that decides when and how they will get the vaccine. They are just a bystander that is waiting to find out this information.

I will leave you with this question, how do you think we can better involve children in responses and decisions that stem from the pandemic and even going forward in other areas?

Sources:

Howland, Jason. “When Will Kids Be Eligible to Be Vaccinated for COVID-19?” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research, newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/when-will-kids-be-eligible-to-be-vaccinated-for-covid-19/.

Mukherjee, Sy. “Where We Stand on COVID Vaccines and Kids.” Fortune, Fortune, 5 Apr. 2021, fortune.com/2021/03/26/covid-19-vaccine-shot-age-requirements-kids-children/.

Nogrady, Bianca. “Why Aren't Kids Getting Vaccinated?” MIT Technology Review, MIT Technology Review, 9 Feb. 2021, www.technologyreview.com/2021/02/08/1017621/why-arent-kids-getting-vaccinated/.

“Why a COVID-19 Vaccine for Children May Take Longer.” Health Essentials from Cleveland Clinic, Health Essentials from Cleveland Clinic, 25 Mar. 2021, health.clevelandclinic.org/why-a-covid-19-vaccine-for-children-may-take-awhile/.

“Why Kids Aren't Getting the COVID-19 Vaccine Yet.” Missouri University Health Care, www.muhealth.org/our-stories/why-kids-arent-getting-covid-19-vaccine-yet.

Braun, Joachim von, and Franz W. Gatzweiler. Marginality—An Overview and Implications for Policy ... link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-94-007-7061-4_1.