USA Health poised to provide COVID-19 vaccine to adolescents age 12 and up
“By vaccinating adolescents, we are moving a step forward toward providing this group with more normalcy which developmentally is very important during this stage of their life... vaccinating teens will add protection to entire families including family members with high-risk conditions." – Benjamin Estrada, M.D.
USA Health soon will expand providing the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to adolescents age 12 and up following an emergency use authorization issued on May 10, by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
“The vaccine has been highly effective in clinical trials in the adolescent age population with 100 percent protection seen in the control group,” said Benjamin Estrada, M.D., a pediatric infectious diseases specialist with USA Health and professor and vice chair of pediatrics at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine.
The clinical trial by Pfizer included more than 2,000 adolescent patients between the ages of 12 and 15.
In the trial, Estrada said, there were no significant serious adverse side effects and the same self-limiting side effects that have been experienced in other age groups. Those side effects include injection site pain, fatigue and headache.
While vaccine hesitancy exists among some parents and caregivers, Estrada said there is no evidence the vaccine will affect a child’s development and there has never been a vaccine that was linked to infertility: “We have no reason to believe this one will be any different.”
Estrada, who also is a parent, said you have to weigh the risk of getting COVID-19 with the safety of the vaccine.
“We still are seeing adolescents admitted with COVID or with what we suspect is a COVID-related illness called MISC (multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children) that can affect multiple organs including their heart,” Estrada said. “This syndrome can affect and limit their ability to participate in routine school activities including sports.”
By vaccinating adolescents, he said, we are moving a step forward toward providing this group with more normalcy which developmentally is very important during this stage of their life. “By vaccinating teens,” Estrada said, “we will add protection to entire families including family members with high-risk conditions."
Estrada encourages parents to have their children vaccinated as soon as possible and said USA Health expects to be able to offer the vaccine to those as young as 12 very soon.
To make an appointment to get the vaccine, visit USAhealthvaccines.com.
Several pop-up vaccine clinics have been planned, including one in Cathedral Square at Art Walk in downtown Mobile on Friday, May 14.
