The news media has understandably been overwhelmed with Russia’s intolerable invasion of Ukraine. It’s really a worldwide crisis. We should all be shocked and concerned.
I’ve been a little distracted and have not paid much attention to the latest and greatest when it comes to Covid. Quite honestly, not much new. We’ve stalled on vaccinations and even worse with boosters. Despite persistently elevated cases and continued severe illness and death, schools, cities, states and countries are “over it” and are opening up, removing mask mandates and vaccine requirements at an uncomfortable pace.
Europe is burning, climate change is accelerating, and we are whining about being “inconvenienced” by being asked to care for our neighbor by wearing a mask or getting vaccinated.
An issue was mentioned in between bombing reports which I thought was very important to address and clarify.
If you just followed the clickbait and didn’t really read the full story, yes on the surface, it appears that Covid vaccines are less effective at reducing the risks of CONTRACTING Covid in kids, especially those between 5-11 years of age.
Well, against Omicron, ALL the vaccines in ALL age categories are much less effective at contracting Covid, but they remain extremely effective, including in 5-11 year-olds, at preventing serious cases of the disease and thus reducing hospitalization and death. We know that the worse your case of the disease, the greater the risks of long-covid symptoms.
All extremely worthy reasons to continue to get vaccinated.
Why are they less effective in kids at preventing disease? Simply put, the dose is too small. We say in medicine, kids are not just little adults and their physiologies work a little bit differently. Although this may is true, these days, if you look around, it’s hard to physically tell the kids from the adults, and therein lies the real problem. As far as size and weight go, younger kids are as big, or in many cases bigger, than teens used to be and teens are bigger than adults. 20% of kids under 20 are obese. A significantly higher number are overweight, not quite approaching the 75% of adults who are obese or overweight, but not far off. 10% of kids under 5 are already obese! It’s nuts. And even at that young age, they are developing the chronic diseases which come along with weight like type 2 diabetes, elevated blood pressure and already forming atherosclerotic plaques in their hearts. At 5!
Most drug doses are not prescribed based on age category, they are prescribed based on weight. Some drugs like antibiotics are grouped by age categories, but ultimately it is weight which dictates how we metabolize and deal with drugs. With most oral antibiotics for example, there is a wide dose effectiveness range so it is easier in some cases, just to group the dose based on age. But just like with many other prescription drugs, we do not take weight, age or natural physiologic activity into account. Another example of this is the very common drug synthroid, used to treat hypothyroidism. Naturally, our thyroid produces thyroid hormone in a diurnal pattern, producing it at various levels at different times of the day, but that is not how it is prescribed. It’s “easier” for people to take it once a day, but is that best?
The vaccine dose given to younger kids is 1/3rd that of older kids and adults. It stands to reason that the smaller the dose, the lower your immune response and the lesser your protection. We see it with natural infections also. Why the lower dose? Well, you always start testing a drug at the lowest doses, in order to find the sweet spot between the “minimal effective dose” and the “safest effective dose”. In this case, there is also an urgent timeline to take into consideration. So in a nutshell, concern over having some kind of safety issue pop up which would make parents even more afraid to give their kids the vaccine seems to be the driving factor. Put something out ASAP which is safe and provides some efficacy.
We have seen some miscalculations with the adult vaccines. We should have spread out the doses out more and we really should have called the booster the “third dose”. These vaccines clearly are most effective after 3 doses serrated by 4-6 months. Some dose adjustments for kids will likely be made over time.
At this stage, only the Pfizer vaccine, one of the mRNA vaccines, is recommended for kids 5-11.
For 12-15 year-olds, Pfizer is still the only one approved. For anyone over 16, both mRNAs Pfizer and Moderna are available with the additional availability of the J&J vaccine.
As far as which one to take, again imagine that we can even make such a choice. Since we can, if you are a male teen or young adult (under 25), stick with Pfizer. Although both mRNA vaccines pose a higher risk of developing myocarditis (heart inflammation), the rate is about 3x higher with Moderna. As a young female, avoid J&J because of the potential clot issue. But keep in mind that both issues are extremely rare to begin with and certainly no higher than what occurs with other medications, vaccines and even in the general population. EVERY drug you put into your body has risks. As I have mentioned before, the drug which causes the most complications and kills the most people worldwide is aspirin. And the most commonly purchased drug class in the US are stomach acid reducers, which are linked with a slew of side effects including gut disturbance by changing the microbiome, various nutritional deficiencies because of malabsorption, osteoporosis and even increased risk of heart attack and stroke. When I present these side effects to most people, they rush to stop them and start just following reflux-precaution measures.
It seems like the lifting of restrictions, regardless of where we stand with this infection, is a runaway train. Your best protection is to still get vaccinated and stay on top of your follow up shots, AKA boosters. Masking, although less effective, continues to be important, especially in specific situations. If you’re in a place which is enclosed with many unmasked people, you may want to mask up. Wear a good mask, first of all. Wear it properly. And if you have any suspicious symptoms, don’t go out. Don’t be selfish and think about those around you.
🇺🇦 Слава Україні 🌻🇺🇦 (Glory to Ukraine)
🇺🇦 Героїм Слава 👊🇺🇦 (Glory to the Heroes)
Stay safe and be well.
AC