COLUMBUS, Ohio — Officials said authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children 12- to 15-years-old — expected early next week — could help Ohio achieve enough immunity for the state in the coming weeks.
Expanded eligibility to hundreds of thousands more Ohioans would advance vaccination numbers at a time when providers are encountering hesitancy in the population. With 41% of residents vaccinated, seven-day average first-dose vaccinations in Ohio have fallen by 68% since a peak five weeks ago.
Ohio's Superintendent of Public Instruction Paolo DeMaria told Spectrum News the state has been awaiting this opportunity to vaccinate more students.
“We've known that the more we get vaccines into younger grade levels, younger age levels, that that's only going to add to the immunity,” he said.
DeMaria said the Ohio Department of Health will take the lead working with schools to make the vaccine available to students across the state. “The schools have been very helpful in terms of pushing it out to high school students, and I'm sure they'll be partners in this stage of the process.”
Lt. Gov. Jon Husted, whose children will soon become eligible for the vaccine, said he was thrilled by the news of forthcoming authorization.
While he expects it will take a bit of time for some parents to feel comfortable with vaccinating their children, Husted was excited for Ohio’s students who will soon be able to enjoy their youth without so much disruption.
“It's good news because we want to make sure that they're protected. We know the vaccine works,” he told Spectrum News Tuesday afternoon at an event at KIPP Columbus Elementary, a public charter school. “I'm excited for students — student athletes who once they get vaccinated won't have to worry about quarantining and the other things that come along with it."
With the school year coming to a close, Union County Health Commissioner Jason Orcena said in a virtual interview he envisions pediatricians playing a major role in vaccinating the age group. The county has seen the same slowdown in first-dose vaccinations as the rest of the state, but Orcena said he is expecting a bump when the eligibility drops to 12 and up.
The challenge is convincing young, healthy people who may not worry much about contracting the virus, to roll up a sleeve, Orcena said. That endeavor is proving to be a more difficult task than vaccinating seniors, more than 80% of whom have been vaccinated in Union County.
“For all of the age groups under the age of 50, uptake has been slower,” he said. “But we hope it will continue to slowly climb as time goes by.”
At a media event at a vaccination site Tuesday, Columbus Public Health Commissioner Dr. Mysheika Roberts said the health department was prepared to vaccinate residents 12 and older, both at the health department and at pop-up clinics designed to reach young people. “We're going to work with the school districts. We're planning to work with our rec and parks department that's having summer camps,” she said. “We're going to look at a number of different activities that are going on in the summer, whether it's food giveaways where families will be coming with kids of that age, to make sure we are in a position to get that population vaccinated as quickly as possible.”
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is currently approved for use in individuals 16 years and older. The other two coronavirus vaccines currently approved for emergency use in the U.S., from Johnson & Johnson and Moderna, are approved for use in people 18 years and older.
Orcena said Union County has moved through vaccinating its population of residents who were very eager to get the shot — now, the test is how well it can make the vaccine easily available to everyone, including the youngest residents who could soon become eligible.
“It's about just offering it at the right locations at the right time. Certainly within our community, like in other communities, there are very common places where foot traffic may warrant having a clinic setup, at least once, to try and see if we can get some walk-in traffic by being out of the way, but near those locations with some signage,” he said.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) emergency use authorization for teenagers 12 and older would be followed by a meeting of a federal vaccine advisory committee to discuss whether to recommend the shot for the age group. Shots could begin after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention adopts the committee’s recommendation. Those steps could be completed in a matter of days.
Pfizer announced in March that its vaccine "demonstrated 100% efficacy and robust antibody responses" in its trial of 12- to 15-year-olds. According to Pfizer, some kids who participated in trials had side effects similar to young adults — pain, fever, chills and fatigue, particularly after the second dose.
Orcena said teens should know that they are just as capable of spreading the virus as anyone else and the decision to get the shot is about protecting the community, not necessarily oneself.
“Hopefully younger folks who have less risk will at least take into consideration the role of being vaccinated as it pertains to those around them who could suffer more significant illness if they were to become infected,” he said.
Orcena said it’s too soon to know if students will be able to go to school without masks next fall, but he said nothing is off the table with vaccine authorization progressing right along for younger people.
Children as young as 5-years-old could be authorized for vaccination as soon as August, according to experts.
As the daily toll of COVID-19 lessens in Ohio, the DeWine administration is making decisions about how to reopen the state, possibly utilizing a vaccination target.
The lieutenant governor said Tuesday he supports ending the health orders once everybody has had the chance to get fully vaccinated.
“Whether that's days or weeks from now, I think the end to the health orders is right around the corner,” he said.