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Children as young as 12 can now begin to start getting Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine.
On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adopted the recommendation of a federal advisory committee which said the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effect for children aged 12-15, and in Michigan and many states use of the vaccine began Thursday.
“I know many of our health departments and our primary care clinics have been preparing for that and we are aware parents will probably have questions,” said Dr. Christine Nefcy, chief medical officer with Munson Healthcare.
“The same rigorous studies on safety and efficacy that went in for adults and in Pfizer’s case down to 16 were put into place for the 12 year olds, and again, thousands of of children age 12-15 were studied for this and we have well over 150,000 just in the state of Michigan who are 16 to 19 years old. There’s a lot of good studies going on about safety and efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine in our younger age group.”
Following the announcement of the approval of use for individuals aged 12 and above, the Health Department of Northwest Michigan announced it will offer vaccine for Pfizer for children age 12 and above immediately at a host of clinics, including Friday at the Emmet County Fairgrounds, Family Fare in East Jordan, at the Boyne City Mushroom Festival and at additional clinics scheduled for next week
To make an appointment or for more information, visit www.nwhealth.org. Walk-ins are also available at the health department’s clinics, but health officials recommend scheduling an appointment ahead of time to reserve a spot. A parent or legal guardian must accompany minors for vaccination.
Dr. Karen DenBestnen an infectious disease specialist at McLaren Northern Michigan, said getting as many children aged 12-15 immunized will be important.
“These are the kids that are working all summer and you don’t want to lose them in our work force,” DenBesten said. “Certainly getting them immunized is going to be important and will allow us to get back to school in the fall in a normal fashion. They can have sports, band, concerts, shows and one-on-one learning.
“That will be a big goal if we can get them immunized at the middle school and high school level.”
DenBesten said at McLaren Northern Michigan, they are seeing a trend where COVID-19 is spreading in the teenage group.
“It’s the susceptible age population where it’s trending and it’s transmitting,” DenBesten said. “A lot of younger people may think they may not need to get immunized, they’re not at high risk or they won’t get sick with COVID. I can tell them that’s absolutely not true. Now that we have a lot of older people that are immunized with COVID, we’re seeing a lot of people in the hospital who are younger, younger people can get very sick with COVID as indicated in India and South America and even in the U.S. we’re seeing more younger people getting sick and hospitalized with COVID.
“It’s very important for the younger people even if they don’t think they’re at risk to get immunized to prevent the spread and allow them to do the things they want to get out there and do.”
Nefcy said at COVID-19 case numbers and daily infections begin to decline following the most recent surge, health officials have seen a real steady number of both pediatric admissions and intensive care unit admissions.
“Our critical care units and intensive care units both in Northern Michigan as well as across the state are still having a high census and are still pretty full of patients,” Nefcy said. “We have not seen the decline in pediatric patients we’d like to see, those numbers are still pretty steady.
Nefcy also said variants of the disease, including a case of the Brazilian variant this week, still continue to be present in Michigan. Given the variants’ high degree of transferability, the importance of immunizations is vital, she added.
“We’ve been holding steady in hospitalizations over the past week or so, certainly down from our peak which was at around 100 and in the 90s, but we’re still quite busy in our critical care and ICU units. We’re trending down in the right direction.”
According to Munson Healthcare’s COVID-19 data tracker, as of May 13 a total of 43 patients were hospitalized as a result of COVID-19. Of that number, 33 were lodged at Munson Medical Center in Traverse City, six at Cadillac Hospital and four at Grayling Hospital.
DenBesten said at McLaren Northern Michigan, numbers have been trending down slightly in their isolation unit, ranging recently from 10-12 as opposed to 20 last month.
She also said reaching individuals who have not yet been immunized and answering questions and concerns regarding vaccines is paramount as the pandemic continues.
“If we can get to that point where enough people are immunized we can get back to that point where we can be back to business and be with our friends and family,” DenBesten said. “We’re so close, it’s within our reach, we just have to get past this next hurdle and get there.”