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Pfizer for teens?

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  • NVintage
    NVintage Posts: 1,463 Member
    edited May 2021
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    Thanks! That is definitely something to consider. I'm sure I will in August if I don't see overwhelming evidence not to. It made me feel better to see Moderna approved in Japan, because I think they're usually pretty cautious. I might wait to see if it's approved for teens, too.
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    NVintage wrote: »
    @speakeasy76
    I'm 44, too. I am pretty sure it was the vaccine, for me, because it is so rare for that to happen with me...It was just for two days, like you said, and then normal. Weird! I am leaning toward getting my daughter vaccinated in August before school starts. I'm planning to over research til then and see how kids do with it.
    nooshi713 wrote: »
    Whatever side effects one gets from a vaccine, the effects of the actual virus will be amplified even more than that. It makes more sense to fear the actual virus than the vaccine for that virus.
    Do you think that's true for kids, though? I thought most the time they just got a runny nose or something...while adults have it worse and might get pneumonia.
    ALL-
    It is a new type of vaccine technology never approved for humans until now, right? What is wrong with researching it before deciding if I think it's worth it? Statistics clearly show 18-55 year olds are the main ones spreading it and over 55 are the ones that are mostly hospitalized. I think it's more important to focus on these groups. I am glad to have t available to kids and if my daughter was in a high risk group I wouldn't hesitate.






    I haven't researched this deeply, but from reports I've seen, the occurrence of even potentially severe long-haul-type side effects of Covid was *not* strongly correlated with severity of the initial disease. IOW, a mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic case could have serious long term complications. Not sure whether that aspect differs by age.

    I'm not saying this to push at you, because I think it's reasonable to be concerned and want to research. I mention it simply as an aspect of the situation you might want to consider and include in the scope of that research. If I had kids, I would.

  • moonangel12
    moonangel12 Posts: 971 Member
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    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    NVintage wrote: »
    @speakeasy76
    I'm 44, too. I am pretty sure it was the vaccine, for me, because it is so rare for that to happen with me...It was just for two days, like you said, and then normal. Weird! I am leaning toward getting my daughter vaccinated in August before school starts. I'm planning to over research til then and see how kids do with it.
    nooshi713 wrote: »
    Whatever side effects one gets from a vaccine, the effects of the actual virus will be amplified even more than that. It makes more sense to fear the actual virus than the vaccine for that virus.
    Do you think that's true for kids, though? I thought most the time they just got a runny nose or something...while adults have it worse and might get pneumonia.
    ALL-
    It is a new type of vaccine technology never approved for humans until now, right? What is wrong with researching it before deciding if I think it's worth it? Statistics clearly show 18-55 year olds are the main ones spreading it and over 55 are the ones that are mostly hospitalized. I think it's more important to focus on these groups. I am glad to have t available to kids and if my daughter was in a high risk group I wouldn't hesitate.






    I haven't researched this deeply, but from reports I've seen, the occurrence of even potentially severe long-haul-type side effects of Covid was *not* strongly correlated with severity of the initial disease. IOW, a mildly symptomatic or asymptomatic case could have serious long term complications. Not sure whether that aspect differs by age.

    I'm not saying this to push at you, because I think it's reasonable to be concerned and want to research. I mention it simply as an aspect of the situation you might want to consider and include in the scope of that research. If I had kids, I would.
    The long haul stuff scares me more than anything because I have been there and 20+ years later I still suffer daily effects of a mystery virus from my teens... I tell people that I got sick and never got better 😕

    so far we have had it confirmed once, 99.9% sure twice and thankfully recovered from each to normal. (I think we had it before they knew what “it” was, picked it up from bball, the announcements came mid way through and the early early, crazy $$$$ testing was just starting as the last family member was getting better... exact COVID symptoms including 104+ fevers for days for my children. It was awful. 9 months later we had it again, but such mild symptoms it could have easily be explained away had we not taken our oldest to the doc for strep. Still no clue where we got it since we are the most cautious of anyone we know.)
  • Toronto6fan
    Toronto6fan Posts: 413 Member
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    My two teens got their first shots this week. 13 year old slightly sore arm, 16 year old sore arm and night sweats for 3 nights.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 8,992 Member
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    33gail33 wrote: »
    NVintage wrote: »
    I hope this doesn't get deleted for being political. It is a subject of health and fitness, though! Do you all think that the risks of covid outweigh the risks of adverse reactions to vaccine in pre-teens and teenagers? Is it worth it for healthy kids to be vaccinated?

    Have there been adverse reactions to the Pfizer vaccine? I haven't heard of any. I don't have teens my kids are in their 20's and are all getting it. I honestly don't understand why everyone is so hesitant about this vaccine compared to the 20 or so their kids have already had.
    Maybe I am simple but the idea that 0.3 ml of a substance designed to trigger a specific immune response would have some sort of random negative effect years down the road seems bizarre and far fetched to me. I wouldn't be worried at all about it.


    My understanding is that Pfizer has a higher than usual (but still insy tiny) level of anaphylactic reactions.

    This is still not a reason not to have it, even if you have prior anaphylactic reactions to other things - as long as you are having it somewhere that qualified staff have adrenaline on hand and know how to use it - which should be everywhere/everyone giving vaccines

    and of course wait afterwards in supervised area for at least 15 minutes - where I work we are asking people with previous allergic reactions to wait 30 minutes

  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    I'm hoping 12 and under get approved soon...hopefully before school starts back in August, but we're also taking a family vacation at the end of July and I would prefer them to be fully vaccinated...especially since we're going into one of the anti-vax/COVID denier capitals of the US in Florida.
  • dethstar77
    dethstar77 Posts: 1,327 Member
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    UPDATE: My son got his shot last Wednesday, he was tired on Thursday morning, but by evening he was back to normal.
  • NVintage
    NVintage Posts: 1,463 Member
    edited May 2021
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    Moderna said zero COVID cases were detected among children and teens who received the vaccine in a clinical trial, giving it an efficacy of 100%..probably will be approved in June? @chocolate_owl
    I would feel really bad if she got covid and had bad long term effects, but would feel just as bad if the vaccines turned out not as safe as we think. It's hard for me to decide sometimes what's best, but I am at an advantage because I've been able to homeschool, and there's not a lot she'd be missing out on if I wait til August since most of her friends have younger siblings and would have to follow the safety guidelines for the unvaccinated anyway.
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    I'm hoping 12 and under get approved soon...hopefully before school starts back in August, but we're also taking a family vacation at the end of July and I would prefer them to be fully vaccinated...especially since we're going into one of the anti-vax/COVID denier capitals of the US in Florida.
    I wonder why some places are so much more cautious than others!Is cautious the right word?:/ I am a little North of Florida in Georgia, and I know quite a few highly educated people dead set against it.
  • chocolate_owl
    chocolate_owl Posts: 1,695 Member
    edited May 2021
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    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    janejellyroll wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    NVintage wrote: »
    Moderna said zero COVID cases were detected among children and teens who received the vaccine in a clinical trial, giving it an efficacy of 100%..probably will be approved in June? @chocolate_owl
    I would feel really bad if she got covid and had bad long term effects, but would feel just as bad if the vaccines turned out not as safe as we think. It's hard for me to decide sometimes what's best, but I am at an advantage because I've been able to homeschool, and there's not a lot she'd be missing out on if I wait til August since most of her friends have younger siblings and would have to follow the safety guidelines for the unvaccinated anyway.
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    I'm hoping 12 and under get approved soon...hopefully before school starts back in August, but we're also taking a family vacation at the end of July and I would prefer them to be fully vaccinated...especially since we're going into one of the anti-vax/COVID denier capitals of the US in Florida.
    I wonder why some places are so much more cautious than others!Is cautious the right word?:/ I am a little North of Florida in Georgia, and I know quite a few highly educated people dead set against it.

    It's called politics. And from there, people find anything they want to find to fit their confirmation bias. You can be highly educated and also stupid at the same time. I trust science...people act like they just pushed this out willy nilly...it's mRNA vaccines have been in the works for decades. I also know a lot of people in the medical field and a good friend of mine is a chemist that worked on the moderna vaccine and I trust him implicitly.

    The wheel was not reinvented here...

    I feel like some of the most highly educated people I know were also prone to overestimate how well they knew things that they really didn't know that much about. They tend to assume that since they know a lot about one thing they can transfer that knowledge to immediately understanding subjects and situations they don't know much about.

    People who are highly educated and have common sense tend to also understand their limitations and are able to acknowledge that there are many subjects in which they aren't the best source of information.

    Yeah, I'm pretty highly educated. I'm great with business, accounting, statistics, and economics. I sucked at most of the sciences and I'm not in that field so I defer to those professionals who overwhelmingly say that the vaccine is safe.

    My chemist friend told me emphatically that it is safe and has been in the works for a very long time, just lacked the funding. He says it's a game changer for vaccines in general and even thinks this could potentially be a major breakthrough for viruses like HIV. I'm just going to defer to people who are way smarter with stuff like this than I am. Not that doing research is a bad thing, but it's pretty easy to dive down a rabbit hole of misinformation, especially when you're really trying to confirm your own bias.

    To the bolded: Moderna is taking mRNA vaccines for the flu and HIV to phase 1 trials this year. The cytomegalovirus vaccine is going to Phase 3. These haven't been concocted overnight. Pharma companies have been steadily pursuing this technology, waiting for the funding to become available to go through trials and approvals.

    https://www.biopharma-reporter.com/Article/2021/04/15/Moderna-to-take-mRNA-flu-and-HIV-vaccines-into-Phase-1-trials-this-year#:~:text=FREE newsletter Subscribe-,Moderna to take mRNA flu and HIV,Phase 1 trials this year&text=Moderna will take mRNA flu,candidate is also under way.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,150 Member
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    janejellyroll wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    NVintage wrote: »
    Moderna said zero COVID cases were detected among children and teens who received the vaccine in a clinical trial, giving it an efficacy of 100%..probably will be approved in June? @chocolate_owl
    I would feel really bad if she got covid and had bad long term effects, but would feel just as bad if the vaccines turned out not as safe as we think. It's hard for me to decide sometimes what's best, but I am at an advantage because I've been able to homeschool, and there's not a lot she'd be missing out on if I wait til August since most of her friends have younger siblings and would have to follow the safety guidelines for the unvaccinated anyway.
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    I'm hoping 12 and under get approved soon...hopefully before school starts back in August, but we're also taking a family vacation at the end of July and I would prefer them to be fully vaccinated...especially since we're going into one of the anti-vax/COVID denier capitals of the US in Florida.
    I wonder why some places are so much more cautious than others!Is cautious the right word?:/ I am a little North of Florida in Georgia, and I know quite a few highly educated people dead set against it.

    It's called politics. And from there, people find anything they want to find to fit their confirmation bias. You can be highly educated and also stupid at the same time. I trust science...people act like they just pushed this out willy nilly...it's mRNA vaccines have been in the works for decades. I also know a lot of people in the medical field and a good friend of mine is a chemist that worked on the moderna vaccine and I trust him implicitly.

    The wheel was not reinvented here...

    I feel like some of the most highly educated people I know were also prone to overestimate how well they knew things that they really didn't know that much about. They tend to assume that since they know a lot about one thing they can transfer that knowledge to immediately understanding subjects and situations they don't know much about.

    People who are highly educated and have common sense tend to also understand their limitations and are able to acknowledge that there are many subjects in which they aren't the best source of information.

    Dunning-Kruger effect, buttressed by selective information sources (media and more), plus a social context that encourages certain beliefs via humans' tendency to accept immediate norms, or perceived norms. It's not a coincidence that predominating beliefs may tend to be geographically or socially regionalized.

    The paragraph above is intended as a general statement about humans of many beliefs about the pandemic, vaccines, or really any other major thing. I'm not accusing any particular camp in any particular dispute of being specially biased in this respect. I do think it can be easier for people who are educated to fall into Dunning-Kruger style fallacies, but it's an equal-opportunity thing.
  • xrj22
    xrj22 Posts: 197 Member
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    My opinion (and I think it is pretty well informed medically), is that covid risks are small for teenagers, and teens themselves do not really benefit from the vaccine. However, they do have a real risk of transmitting covid. So teachers and elderly people around them benefit. Of course, those people can lower their risk by vaccinating themselves, but no vaccine is 100%, so teens being vaccinated helps them a little bit. Also I teens getting vaccinated would help the society to get herd immunity. However, it is uncertain that we will ever get there. So, it is controversial how much to expect them to vaccinate for the common good --- especially when it is hard to define exactly how much it will help the common good under real-world situations (as opposed to the theoretical situation where everyone gets vaccinated.

    Personally, I think the benefit to the common good is large enough that teens should get vaccinated, and that at some point they should be required to. But that's my opinion. We live in a democracy. I am willing to accept that this may not turn out to be the majority opinion and the rules should reflect the majority opinion.

  • fitom80
    fitom80 Posts: 154 Member
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    xrj22 wrote: »

    Just a note. There is significant risk for them alhough its lower than for older groups (see e..g. here https://idpjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40249-020-00785-1) and you have to add risk of serious consequences. All is based on currently spread mutations. (and we know at least that british mut. has 60% higher spread potential than original one, and Indian 60% more than british so without vaccinating almost whole population (by indiam mut spread ratio) you can count number of dead children bcs sooner or later each of them will face the virus..) much more could be said.

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