The ACIP clearly made the right call here. Still, as I've mentioned before, I worry about what this means for vaccination of children under 12.
Young kids need to be vaccinated, too. Toddlers -- the population with which I'm most concerned because, well, I have one -- are hospitalized in roughly one in 200 cases and suffer MIS-C in perhaps one in 2,000. And they develop long COVID -- it's hard to say just how often, but also hard to regard any number as trivial. This is to say nothing of the importance of vaccinating this population to control community spread, especially with things reopening and more infectious variants becoming dominant.
Yet, I have to think that the prospect of vaccine-induced myocarditis in such young children might throw a wrench into the works when it comes to extending EUA coverage to them. This would seem to lend some urgency to determining what exactly is causing this side effect, its likelihood of occurring different populations, and whether there's a way it might be prevented (e.g., timing of doses).
We're just not going to be able to know until we see the vaccines deployed in children in that age group. I think, though, that the risk of myocarditis due to COVID-19 will still continue to outweigh the risk of myocarditis due to the vaccines, in any age group (see Carl's comment on this). So I'm hopeful that the risk-benefit will continue to be favorable.
Also, I think it might be mitigated by the lower dosages planned for young children. It's really hard to say. I hope that it doesn't mess up availability for that age group. Kids do need to be protected, you're right about that 100%.
Dr. Walensky also wrote that COVID-19 is a much more significant cause of myocarditis than any of the vaccines, according to current evidence. So ... to prevent myocarditis, get vaccinated!
Hey, something that occurred to me this afternoon. We have heard that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are very effective against the Delta strain (which you prefer to use the technical term, B.1.617.2 for). Novavax's preliminary data says that it's extremely effective against this variant.
We have also heard that the experimental vaccine from Curevac is not very effective against it.
Have you heard anything about, say, J&J vs. Delta? Or AstraZeneca? How about Sputnik V, or Sinovac, or Sinopharm, or all the other non-US vaccines? Nothing in the mass media that I've noticed, but obviously if, say, Sputnik 5 is useless against Delta that's going to mean it's a waste of time in short order, as Delta seems to be replacing all other strains wherever it's present.
I'll be discussing J&J, AZ, and Moderna vs Delta in tomorrow's issue--just wrote it up. I don't know that there are data regarding the other global options (and there also aren't great data regarding most of that list, but there are inferences I feel able to make).
The ACIP clearly made the right call here. Still, as I've mentioned before, I worry about what this means for vaccination of children under 12.
Young kids need to be vaccinated, too. Toddlers -- the population with which I'm most concerned because, well, I have one -- are hospitalized in roughly one in 200 cases and suffer MIS-C in perhaps one in 2,000. And they develop long COVID -- it's hard to say just how often, but also hard to regard any number as trivial. This is to say nothing of the importance of vaccinating this population to control community spread, especially with things reopening and more infectious variants becoming dominant.
Yet, I have to think that the prospect of vaccine-induced myocarditis in such young children might throw a wrench into the works when it comes to extending EUA coverage to them. This would seem to lend some urgency to determining what exactly is causing this side effect, its likelihood of occurring different populations, and whether there's a way it might be prevented (e.g., timing of doses).
We're just not going to be able to know until we see the vaccines deployed in children in that age group. I think, though, that the risk of myocarditis due to COVID-19 will still continue to outweigh the risk of myocarditis due to the vaccines, in any age group (see Carl's comment on this). So I'm hopeful that the risk-benefit will continue to be favorable.
Also, I think it might be mitigated by the lower dosages planned for young children. It's really hard to say. I hope that it doesn't mess up availability for that age group. Kids do need to be protected, you're right about that 100%.
Dr. Walensky also wrote that COVID-19 is a much more significant cause of myocarditis than any of the vaccines, according to current evidence. So ... to prevent myocarditis, get vaccinated!
Yes, very good point!
Hey, something that occurred to me this afternoon. We have heard that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are very effective against the Delta strain (which you prefer to use the technical term, B.1.617.2 for). Novavax's preliminary data says that it's extremely effective against this variant.
We have also heard that the experimental vaccine from Curevac is not very effective against it.
Have you heard anything about, say, J&J vs. Delta? Or AstraZeneca? How about Sputnik V, or Sinovac, or Sinopharm, or all the other non-US vaccines? Nothing in the mass media that I've noticed, but obviously if, say, Sputnik 5 is useless against Delta that's going to mean it's a waste of time in short order, as Delta seems to be replacing all other strains wherever it's present.
I'll be discussing J&J, AZ, and Moderna vs Delta in tomorrow's issue--just wrote it up. I don't know that there are data regarding the other global options (and there also aren't great data regarding most of that list, but there are inferences I feel able to make).
The lack of any data would go a long way to explaining why I couldn't find any ....