A Guide to COVID-19 Vaccines for Little Kids

Children under five years old in the United States are now able to get vaccinated against COVID-19. 

But some parents have expressed reluctance to get their children vaccinated. 

It's true that most young children infected with the coronavirus have mild or no symptoms, but some kids have been hospitalized, admitted to the intensive care unit or have died.

In her article, "A Guide to COVID-19 Vaccines for the Youngest Kids," Science Editor Jessica McDonald explains what’s known about the two coronavirus vaccines for the youngest children, and how they’re different from their adult and older kid counterparts.

In a Q&A format, Jessie -- the mom of a 1-year-old -- answers such questions as "How effective are the vaccines?" How safe are the vaccines?" "Do experts recommend that all eligible children receive this vaccine?"

Jessie also looked at the latest data, which show around 20,000 kids 6 months to 4 years old have been hospitalized for COVID-19 since the pandemic began. Additionally, she finds that around 200 kids in that age group have died from COVID-19, a tally that accounts for 1.7% of all deaths from any cause for the age group.

COVID-19 is among the top 10 causes of death for kids below the age of 1 and for kids 1 to 4 years old.

As with vaccines for adults and older children, the clinical trials for the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for young children did not reveal any serious safety concerns.

That's why many experts, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that all children 6 months of age and older get vaccinated, unless they have a medical reason not to, such as an allergy to a vaccine ingredient. 

And yes, Jessie will be vaccinating her 1-year-old, although she’s waiting a little since her daughter had COVID-19 recently.

Reader: What's a valid explanation for all the unknown "unexpected" deaths, myocarditis, and strokes due to clots in the recently vaccinated? Health issues in young ppl who have no issues? I feel like this is an ignored issue and the health and science communities along with media need to be addressing this. It's not a coincidence. Something obviously has to be in these shots that's killing people. And then the question...why?

FactCheck.org Director Eugene Kiely: You claim there are large numbers of unexpected health issues and deaths in the recently vaccinated, but there is no evidence of that.

You may be thinking of reports to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which is jointly run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration. VAERS is the nation’s early warning system to detect possible safety problems with vaccines after they are rolled out to the public. Some have misinterpreted VAERS data to suggest the vaccines are dangerous. 

But, as Science Editor Jessica McDonald has written, VAERS data and other safety monitoring systems have shown there are only a few, rare safety concerns with the vaccines. Those include heart inflammation for the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines and a blood clotting disorder coupled with low platelets for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. (For more, see “How safe are the vaccines,” which we last updated on May 17.)

The issue is not that the health and science communities are ignoring reports to the VAERS system or that the media is not addressing these concerns. It’s that some anti-vaccine activists have misused VAERS to falsely claim that the vaccines have caused many deaths and injuries, when in fact such cases are rare.

This email response has been edited for length.

Wrapping Up

Here's what else we've got for you this week:

• "Noem’s Misleading Claim About Safety of Medication Abortion": The Food and Drug Administration and numerous peer-reviewed academic studies have concluded that medication abortions are “safe and effective” and that serious adverse events are relatively rare. But South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem misleadingly called medication abortions "very dangerous medical procedures."
• "Herbal Recipes for Abortion Are Unproven and Can Be Dangerous, Contrary to Social Media Posts": Taking unregulated herbal cocktails to cause an abortion can be dangerous, obstetricians say. But recipes — some containing potentially toxic ingredients — for self-induced “miscarriages” have been circulating online since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. 
• "Gasoline Prices Up Due to Global Supply-Demand Issues, Russian Invasion of Ukraine": U.S. presidents have little control over the price that consumers pay for gasoline. It depends mostly on the price of crude oil, which is set on the global market, based largely on worldwide supply and demand. Yet Republican campaign ads have falsely claimed or suggested that President Joe Biden and Democrats are solely to blame for the prices that motorists are paying at the pump.
• "COVID-19 Vaccines Don’t Contain Fetal Tissue": Despite persistent claims to the contrary, none of the three authorized or approved COVID-19 vaccines contains fetal tissue. We take a look at the facts in light of Justice Clarence Thomas’ dissent.
• "Planned Parenthood Centers Remain Open Following the Ruling on Roe v. Wade": Planned Parenthood has not closed any of its health centers after the Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, the organization told us. But social media posts falsely claim that Planned Parenthood clinics have been closing “all over the country” since the ruling. Some clinics have ceased performing abortions but are still providing health services.
• "Fabricated Fourth of July Tweet Was Not from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene": Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene was among the many politicians who posted Fourth of July messages on social media. But a bogus, nonsensical July Fourth tweet purportedly from the congresswoman has been spread by partisan accounts. The post was meant as a spoof. 
• "Abortion Is Sometimes Medically Necessary, Contrary to Facebook Posts": There are life-threatening complications in which abortion is medically necessary, and social media posts claiming otherwise are incorrect, physicians said. “In some situations, abortion is the only medical intervention that can preserve a patient’s health,” the president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists told us.

• "Las vacunas contra el COVID-19 no contienen tejido fetal": A pesar de las persistentes afirmaciones sobre lo contrario, ninguna de las tres vacunas COVID-19 autorizadas o aprobadas contiene tejido fetal. Echamos un vistazo a los hechos a la luz de la disidencia del juez Clarence Thomas.
• "Biden se adjudica demasiado mérito por la disminución de muertes por COVID-19": Mientras Estados Unidos experimenta una caída importante en la cantidad de muertes diarias y la ola de la variante ómicron sigue su curso, el presidente Joe Biden se ha jactado repetidamente de que su “estrategia ha reducido las muertes por COVID en un 90%”. Esa cifra es precisa, pero los expertos dicen que la caída es en gran parte atribuible a una serie de factores que están fuera del control del presidente.
• "Sitio web promueve una falacia antigua y desacreditada sobre las vacunas de ARNm contra el COVID-19": Un directivo de la empresa farmacéutica alemana Bayer se refirió a las vacunas de ARNm usadas contra el COVID-19 como un ejemplo de innovación en biotecnología, durante la Cumbre Mundial de la Salud 2021. Pero una publicación en internet descontextualiza los comentarios del ejecutivo para afirmar falsamente que señaló que las vacunas son terapia genética.