Vaccinations for COVID-19 have declined among elementary school children over the past month, leaving thousands unprotected in Minnesota as the omicron pandemic wave took hold.
Vaccine hesitancy, holidays and the hassle of appointments reduced first-dose vaccinations in children ages 5 to 11 from 7,300 a day in mid-November to 1,200 last week, according to federal data. While Minnesota nearly hit a 40% first-dose rate in that group, ranking 10th among states, health officials lamented missed opportunities.
“The surge … has already been written into the history books in terms of the role the vaccine will play,” said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, because the omicron wave reaches its peak and new vaccinees will not achieve full immunity for five weeks.
Omicron’s spread has been staggering, producing fewer severe cases of COVID-19 than previous waves, but recording infections that have filled hospitals and disrupted schools and businesses. In 2021, weekly infections for 10,000 children ages 5 to 11 fell from 84 in mid-November to 26 in mid-December and 112 by year-end, according to the Minnesota Department of Health. .
Kirsten Grupa considered the risks, canceling plans to see “Annie” at the Children’s Theater Company with her 8-year-old twin daughters, and asking their grandparents to test negative for COVID-19 before visiting. Grupa has home-schooled the girls during the pandemic, in part because one of them has type 1 diabetes and is at risk of becoming seriously ill. But mother Maplewood did not vaccinate them.
“We’re not around a lot of other people and we’re very aware of COVID,” said Grupa, who is vaccinated and runs a photography business with her husband. “We mask up, we don’t usually go out to restaurants to eat, and so for me, I just felt like our risk was lower.”
Minnesota expanded its pediatric vaccinations at the Mall of America on November 3, the day after the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved the two-dose Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. The age group’s first dose vaccination rate reached 23% by Thanksgiving.
The subsequent decline was expected, said Dr. Gigi Chawla, chief of general pediatrics at Children’s Minnesota, which operates hospitals in Minneapolis and St. Paul. The first third of parents are eager to research new pediatric vaccines to protect children, but the next third asks for convincing and needs to hear from people they trust.
“We’re really in that middle third where people… think more about their kids and [the infection risk in] their family,” she said.
Vaccination progress has been slower in children aged 5 to 11 than it was when children aged 12 to 15 were approved last spring, and that was also expected because parents tend to be more careful with young children, said state infectious disease director Kris Ehresmann.
The problem is that the slower rollout came at a bigger time last fall when the fast-spreading omicron variant was emerging to replace delta as the dominant strain of coronavirus. Minnesota’s first omicron infection was announced Dec. 2 but occurred Nov. 22, days before the variant was discovered in South Africa, Ehresmann said. “To say we were going to have been lucky enough to be prepared is probably not fair.”
The holidays have also disrupted immunization progress, but the Health Department has restarted school-based immunization clinics and plans to provide clinics in popular locations for young families. The state also responded with a $200 vaccine incentive for new recipients ages 5 to 11 and drawings for five $100,000 Minnesota college scholarships. Sign up starts Monday.
The risk of severe COVID-19 is lower in children. Minnesota has reported nearly 12,000 deaths from COVID-19, and 82% were seniors. Last week’s report of a COVID-19 death in a Dakota County child was the eighth involving a Minnesotan under the age of 20.
However, pediatric hospitalizations increased in the omicron wave. Through Wednesday, Minnesota hospitals reported 239 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in pediatric patients in January, according to federal data. This surpassed the previous high of 145 admissions in December and the 154 admissions from last February to April combined during the alpha wave.
Some are children in need of care for other issues who have mild or asymptomatic COVID-19, but even they require extra attention and infection control measures, Chawla said.
“Hospitals are full. They’re full of kids who are sick right now, and as more kids get infected with omicron, we’re likely to see… more kids in the hospital.”
More than 71% of adults ages 18 to 49 have received the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to Minnesota data, indicating that many parents are being vaccinated even if their children are not.
Stephanie Canfield said she had COVID-19 in March 2020, suffering shortness of breath and other symptoms for three months after an outbreak at her husband’s workplace. Lakeville’s mother is vaccinated but said she was in no rush to get vaccinated for her 7- and 9-year-olds, in part because her 4-year-old twins are not eligible.
Breakthrough infections in her brother’s family were a deterrent, she added. “They were all vaccinated and still got COVID and still got sick.”
Minnesota has yet to provide groundbreaking data for the 5-11 age group, but infection rates from May 2 to December 18 were three times higher among unvaccinated than vaccinated 12-17 year olds. . The rate of hospitalizations for COVID-19 was eight times higher among the unvaccinated.
Osterholm said families shouldn’t assume they’re risk-free just because omicron is producing fewer severe cases of COVID-19 and the surge is peaking. Infection rates have plateaued for weeks since the initial surge subsided in South Africa.
“Some parents, they refuse to do it at all,” he said. “Their feeling is that it’s not going to happen to me or my family. Or it will be mild in our children and vaccines have certain risks.
Side effects include rare allergic reactions and common short-term symptoms such as arm pain, fever, and body aches. Rare risks include a form of heart inflammation called myocarditis, but Osterholm said the risks are higher because of COVID-19.
“You significantly reduce your risk of having severe myocarditis by being vaccinated,” he said.
Limited appointments contributed to the slow progress of vaccination because nurses infected with omicron and other vaccine providers. Canfield had appointments for her two older children last month but had to reschedule when one had a fever and then they were rushed by the clinic because it was understaffed.
Jessica Kearns of Falcon Heights said appointments were so rare that she drove her two boys to separate clinics in different cities. The U sociology student lamented the plight of low-income parents with limited transportation.
“It was quite difficult trying to find dates for my kids even though I have a working car and a very flexible job,” she said.
Grupa said the $200 incentive pushed her and she searched Friday and found dates for her daughters this week. Outdoor activities at a recreation center were great and they visited a library on Friday. But she delayed swimming lessons due to infection risks.
“Not having vaccinated them yet,” she said, “I had to make choices.”
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COVID-19 vaccination rate drops for Minnesota children - TittlePress
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