Healthy Habits: Children and Herd Immunity

 

As the Pfizer vaccine awaits emergency authorization as soon as early next week from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in young adolescents ages 12 to 15, Miguela Caniza, MD MPH, Director of the St. Jude Global Infectious Diseases Program at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and a leader in tracking COVID-19 in pediatric populations spoke out today on the important role children will play in helping to achieve herd immunity against the virus. “In order to achieve the two-thirds threshold necessary for herd immunity, childhood vaccinations are a key component,” said Dr. Caniza.  “Even if we immunize all adults in the United States against COVID-19, we still only get to 74% of the population protected.  As vaccine hesitancy and the spread of variants become a growing crisis, being able to vaccinate children safely and effectively against COVID-19 will be a critically important step in helping us to control the virus.” When the coronavirus first emerged, Dr. Caniza urged her colleagues of infectious disease leaders from 24 countries who were gathering at St. Jude to set aside their agendas and immediately focus on the virus. Those discussions led to the establishment of a registry tracking COVID-19 in childhood cancer patients around the world. She and her colleagues were recently featured in the Commercial Appeal for their initial and continuing efforts to track the emergency of the novel coronavirus in children. “Children and teenagers are highly mobile populations attending schools, sports, extracurricular activities and intersecting more often with various age groups including caretakers and older family members,” Dr. Caniza continued.  “Because of the high percent of children and teenagers being asymptomatic or with minimal symptoms, most likely they will be effectively spreading during a very contagious period, and even more so, if they don’t follow the standard precautions (distancing, using masks and practicing hand hygiene). Dr. Caniza outlines three essential reasons why it is critical to achieve the ability to immunize children, even if most of the poor outcomes and deaths from COVID-19 have been seen in older adults: 1. Children and teenagers can also become infected and some of them with serious disease. We are still learning about this infection and their consequences including those long term called the post-COVID conditions including long-COVID, multiorgan effects of COVID, and the effect of COVID treatment or hospitalization. 2. Children and teenagers are highly mobiles attending schools, sports, and intersecting more often with various age groups including with their caretakers and older family members. 3. Because of the high percent of children and teenagers being asymptomatic or with minimal symptoms, most likely they will be effectively spreading during a very contagious period, and even more so, if they don’t follow the standard precautions (distancing, using masks and practicing hand hygiene).

# # # St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital is leading the way the world understands, treats and cures childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. It is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children. St. Jude is ranked the No. 1 pediatric cancer hospital by U.S. News & World Report. Treatments developed at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent to 80 percent since the hospital opened more than 50 years ago. St. Jude freely shares the breakthroughs it makes, and every child saved at St. Jude means doctors and scientists worldwide can use that knowledge to save thousands more children. Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing and food — because all a family should worry about is helping their child live. To learn more, visit stjude.org or follow St. Jude on social media at @stjuderesearch.