Common Questions & Talking Points

Do kids really need to be vaccinated against COVID-19?

• The vaccine’s main purpose is to prevent severe disease and hospitalization, not necessarily to prevent infection altogether. The latest data show that COVID-19 vaccines protect children from severe disease and hospitalization, including new variants.
• The COVID-19 vaccine can help children to stay in school. Even if a school based COVID-19 outbreak happens, vaccinated children have a better chance of remaining healthy and being able to stay in the classroom during the outbreak. This is critical, as data show that educational disruptions and isolation from peers have detrimental impacts on children’s mental health.
• Although older people are more likely to die from COVID-19 than children, the CDC counts the disease as one of the top 10 causes of death for 5- to 11-year-olds. More than 1,500 children ages 17 and under have died of COVID-19 in the US, including many who had no underlying health conditions.
• Emerging data suggest that in addition to reducing the risk of acute illness, COVID-19 vaccination may have a protective effect against long COVID-19.
• Other mitigation strategies, such as handwashing and mask wearing, are important pieces of a layered approach. But vaccination is the leading public health prevention strategy to keep kids safe from COVID-19 infection.
• Vaccination is especially important for children and youth with special health care needs because they may have a higher risk of getting severely ill with COVID-19 due to underlying medical conditions.
• Another way to protect children who may not be eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine is ensuring that others in the household are up to date on their COVID-19 vaccine.

Sources: https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2022/should-i-vaccinate-my-kids-against-covid-19-yes-heres-why
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html

Key takeaway: The benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the perceived and reported risks.

For additional COVID-19 vaccine information, visit the COVID-19 Vaccine for Children webpages on aap.org.

How quickly were the COVID-19 vaccines developed?

• The mRNA technology that is being used in the pediatric vaccine currently is a method that has been around for over a decade.
• China isolated and shared genetic information about COVID-19 promptly so that scientists could start working on vaccines right away for this novel coronavirus. Scientists and vaccine developers have not skipped any steps. However, global collaboration and information sharing led to a more efficient process and faster availability of data.
• With COVID-19 vaccine trials, there were many enthusiastic study volunteers, which expedited the recruitment process.
• Typically, vaccine manufacturers begin vaccine production after receiving FDA authorization. However, due to the urgent need, vaccine manufacturers prepared vaccine product for shipment prior to FDA authorization, allowing them to distribute product immediately following FDA authorization.

What are the chances of experiencing severe side effects from COVID-19 vaccine?

• COVID-19 vaccine can have side effects, but the vast majority are mild and very short term, such as injection site pain, fatigue, headache, myalgia and chills. These side effects indicate that your immune system is responding to the vaccine.
• Reports of serious side effects are extremely rare.
  
  • A report published by the CDC found that 12-17-year-old boys had two to six times the risk of heart complications, particularly myocarditis and pericarditis, after COVID-19 infection compared with after COVID-19 vaccination.
  • Per the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, as of January 2022 over 8.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered in the 5-11-age-group with 16 myocarditis reports to VAERS, 12 of which met case definition. Over 18.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered in the 12-15-age-group with 317 myocarditis reports to VAERS, 265 of which met case definition.
  • Myocarditis reports that meet case definition are much stricter than what people might report as being myocarditis to the VAERS system.
• Not all signs and symptoms reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) are caused by vaccination. The VAERS system is a way for individuals to report any sign or symptom that is thought to be temporally associated with a vaccine. When considering VAERS data, distinguish between temporal associations and causal associations. Temporal associations refer to signs and symptoms that happen to occur around the time one receives a vaccine, whereas causal associations refer to when the vaccine actually causes the sign or symptom. Helping families to understand this distinction can quell vaccine-related concerns and prevent inflation of perceived vaccine risk.

Are there long-term impacts from the COVID-19 vaccine?

• mRNA technology, used to create the currently available pediatric vaccine, has been around for over a decade and mRNA vaccines have been studied before for influenza, Zika, and rabies without identification of issues. Beyond vaccines, cancer research has used mRNA to trigger the immune system to target specific cancer cells.
• Historical trends demonstrate that severe side effects are extremely rare, and if they do occur, they usually happen within the first two months. When looking at the oral polio, yellow fever, influenza and MMR vaccine histories, when serious side effects occurred, the onset was within eight weeks of receipt of the vaccine.
• Children are experiencing both short and long-term impacts from the COVID-19 infection itself.
  
  • A report published by the CDC in January 2022 said that children who have had COVID-19 were more likely to receive a new diabetes diagnosis more than a month after a coronavirus infection than those who never were infected.

Source: https://www.chop.edu/news/long-term-side-effects-covid-19-vaccine
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/71/wr/mm7102e2.htm

Does the COVID-19 vaccine impact fertility?

• The COVID-19 vaccine does not affect fertility; there is no biological mechanism that connects the vaccine to child development, puberty or fertility. The vaccine does not work that way in the body.
• This myth arose from a false report on social media that incorrectly linked the spike protein on the coronavirus to the spike protein called syncitin-1 that is involved in the growth and attachment of the placenta during pregnancy. The false report said that getting the COVID-19 vaccine would cause a woman’s body to fight this different spike protein and affect her fertility, but the two spike proteins are completely different and distinct!
  • When scientists compared the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to placental syncytin-1 spike protein, the genetic overlaps were minimal. In this study, scientists found that antibodies against the syncytin-1 spike protein do not increase in the months following COVID-19 vaccination, further indicating that a syncytin-1 based mechanism of infertility is not supported by scientific observations.
  • The study further suggests that the immune response generated after mRNA vaccination is safer in pregnancy than the immune response to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Even high doses of the mRNA vaccine did not result in negative impacts on the developing fetus.
• A January 2022 study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology looked at 2,000 couples trying to conceive without fertility treatment. Findings showed no differences in the likelihood of conception between vaccinated and unvaccinated couples. It also showed that SARS-CoV-2 infection among male partners was associated with a short-term decline in fertility that may be avoidable by vaccination.
• Results from recent research studies show that people who menstruate may observe small, temporary changes in menstruation after COVID-19 vaccination, including:
  • Longer-lasting menstrual periods
  • Shorter intervals between periods
  • Heavier bleeding than usual

Despite these temporary changes in menstruation, there is no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines cause fertility problems.

• A study of 45 healthy men who received an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine looked at sperm characteristics, like quantity and movement, before and after vaccination. Researchers found no significant changes in these sperm characteristics after vaccination.
• There is no evidence that any vaccine, including the COVID-19 vaccine, can cause fertility side effects.

Shareable with families:

• Will my child’s future fertility be affected by the COVID vaccine?
• Does the COVID vaccine affect fertility?

Source: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccines-myth-versus-fact

Why do those who have had COVID-19 infection still need the vaccine?

• Individuals who have already had a COVID-19 infection should still receive the COVID-19 vaccine recommended for their age group.
• Evidence continues to indicate that getting the COVID-19 vaccine is the best protection against COVID-19, whether one has already had COVID-19 or not. Being up to date on COVID-19 vaccine will help prevent serious illness if one does get infected again.
• A study published in August of 2021 indicates that if you had COVID-19 before and are not vaccinated, your risk of getting reinfected is more than 2 times higher than for those who were infected and got vaccinated. Even though there is some level of immunity for those who previously had COVID-19, it is uncertain sure how long that immunity will last or the level of protection it provides.

Shareable with families:

• If my child had COVID already, do they need the vaccine? (HealthyChildren.org)

Sources: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/facts.html
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccines-myth-versus-fact