The study showed significant respiratory protection against Omicron subvariants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus lasting at least six months. Illustration by iStock.
A recent study co-authored by Tulane University researchers shows a new COVID-19 vaccine offers longer-lasting protection against Omicron variants of SARS-CoV-2.
The study, led by principal investigator Bali Pulendran, PhD, of Stanford University and published inScience Translational Medicine, evaluated the vaccines performance over time in nonhuman primates. The trial, performed at the Tulane National Primate Research Center, tested a vaccine that is currently in use in South Korea, but not yet available outside the country.
While U.S. regulators recently issued emergency use authorizations for new bivalent boosters for the Moderna and Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines to protect against the Omicron subvariants of the virus, scientists are still working to test different COVID-19 vaccines to see if they can deliver more durable and longer-lasting protection.
The nanoparticle vaccine tested at Tulanecontains spike proteins from the virus to help the immune system recognize and defend against SARS-CoV-2. By using spike proteins from a specific site or receptor binding domain of the virus, scientists have homed in on the site that may prove especially protective against the Omicron variant.
The study showed significant respiratory protection against Omicron subvariants of the virus lasting at least six months, even though the vaccine targeted the original and Beta variants of the virus. Current vaccines provide a similar level of protection against Omicron subvariants six weeks after vaccination, but that protection drops significantly just 10 weeks later.
The booster also elicited an antibody response against the virus that remained high over a 10-month period, the highest reported for COVID-19 vaccines in people.
The vaccine was tested against the BA.1 and BA.2 subvariants. However, scientists are encouraged by results that indicate it may also prove effective against subsequent subvariants including BA.5, the strain currently circulating throughout the U.S.
Jay Rappaport, PhD, director and chief academic officer of the Tulane National Primate Research Center, said that the finding is significant.
So far, the virus has been outpacing scientists in its ability to adapt in ways that can evade the immune system, even a short time after vaccination. Vaccines that protect against Omicron subvariants for a longer period will give us a real chance at achieving enough immunity to greatly reduce the spread of the virus, Rappaport said.
BioNTech's COVID vaccine sales are poised to slip, but the shot will remain a 'cash cow' in the long term: analysts FiercePharma
CLAIM
there is an international medical crisis due to the diseases and deaths co-related to the administration of products known as COVID-19 vaccines
DETAILS
Inadequate support: The claim that the vaccines have caused an international medical crisis due to millions of adverse effects, miscarriages, and over 70,000 deaths is unsupported. There is no evidence that the COVID-19 vaccines are causing a rise in mortality or miscarriages.Factually inaccurate: Large-scale studies show that the COVID-19 vaccines dont increase the risk of negative pregnancy outcomes.Misleading: Adverse event reports in databases like VAERS and EudraVigilance are important tools for monitoring vaccine safety. But reports in these databases alone arent sufficient evidence that the COVID-19 vaccines caused an adverse event, and reports need to be further analyzed to establish causality. Claims that excess deaths are due to COVID-19 vaccines are due to misleading interpretations of data.
KEY TAKE AWAY
Scientific evidence from clinical trials and safety monitoring indicate that the COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. In the first year of the COVID-19 vaccine campaign, these vaccines were estimated to have prevented 19.8 million deaths due to COVID-19. There is no evidence that these vaccines have caused a rise in mortality or sudden deaths, and studies have shown that the vaccines dont increase the risk of negative pregnancy outcomes. The claim that the COVID-19 vaccines have caused an international medical crisis is baseless.
REVIEW On 1 September 2022, a team of researchers at the MRC Center for Global Infectious Disease Analysis at the Imperial College London, published a study in The Lancet where they estimated that the COVID-19 vaccines prevented 19.8 million deaths due to COVID-19 during the first year of the vaccination campaign[1]. The COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective, significantly reducing the risk of serious illness and death due to COVID-19.
Despite overwhelming evidence of the COVID-19 vaccines success, misinformation about these vaccines continues to spread online. Recently, a group of doctors and scientists signed a declaration where they called for a worldwide stop to the COVID-19 vaccination campaigns. The declaration also claimed that there is an international medical crisis due to the diseases and deaths co-related to the administration of products known as COVID-19 vaccines, and that a high incidence of miscarriages and a large number of adverse side effects were occurring in people who received the COVID-19 vaccines.
The declaration is supported by COVID-19 denialist groups that have created and spread misinformation about COVID-19 and the COVID-19 vaccines, including Mdicos por La Verdad, which is active in a number of Spanish-speaking countries, and Mdicos pela Vida, a Brazilian group that became famous for promoting ineffective COVID-19 treatments. Signatories of the declaration include individuals like Natalia Prego, a member of Mdicos por La Verdad (whose name appears three times on the list of signatories, see here).
Outlets like One American News Network (OAN) and Daily Sceptic, two websites that have been previously factchecked by Health Feedback, reported on the declaration. Neither outlet acknowledged that the claims made in the declaration were previously fact-checked and found to be inaccurate, unsupported or misleading.
The outlets claim that 400 doctors signed the declarationlikely an attempt to suggest strong support by the general medical communityis suspect. Based on multiple signatures left on the declaration (see here, here, here, here, and here), some of which include fictitious names and locations, it becomes clear that any individual can sign it and no vetting of a signatorys qualifications is required.
The declaration made three main claims to support their statement that the COVID-19 vaccines have precipitated an international medical crisis. As well show below, these three claims are misleading, inaccurate and unsupported.
We are currently witnessing an excess in mortality in those countries where the majority of the population has received the so called COVID-19 vaccines
The declaration began by claiming that there was excess mortality in countries where the majority of the population had received the COVID-19 vaccines. This isnt a new claim. In 2022, Health Feedback and other organizations and news outlets fact-checked a number of claims about how the COVID-19 vaccines were to blame for the rise in excess deaths in 2021; fact-checks addressed claims about excess death in highly vaccinated European countries, in children in Europe, and among millennials in the U.S.
Previous fact-checks of these types of claims demonstrated that these claims are built on faulty analyses of data. For instance, in August 2022, Health Feedback pointed out that the claim that European countries with lower vaccination rates had lower excess deaths compared to countries with high vaccination rates was only true for June 2022 and only when compared to the average excess deaths for the years 2016 to 2019, which is before the COVID-19 pandemic and therefore doesnt reflect the current COVID-19 reality. Furthermore, these claims are built on correlations that are oversimplified and dont account for other variablessuch as age distribution and healthcare capacitythat also impact mortality.
Additionally, previous fact checks also pointed out that there are many possible explanations for excess death in 2021. In a fact-check about claims about excess death among millennials, experts told the Associated Press that COVID-19 itself is the obvious culprit for the deaths, especially as the rise in deaths coincided with the highly-contagious Delta and Omicron variants of SARS-CoV-2.
In a fact-check about the claims of excess death among European children, experts told the fact checking group RMIT FactLab that excess deaths in this age group could be due to COVID-19, the post-lockdown resurgence of respiratory diseases like influenza, and long-term consequences of the pandemic (postpones screenings and treatments, overloaded healthcare systems).
Finally, theres no evidence that the COVID-19 vaccines are causing a rise in mortality. To date, CDC has not detected any unusual or unexpected patterns for deaths following immunization that would indicate that COVID vaccines are causing or contributing to deaths, outside of the nine confirmed deaths following the Janssen vaccine, Martha Sharan, a spokesperson for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told the Associated Press in March 2022.
The large number of sudden deaths in previously healthy young people who were inoculated with these vaccines, is particularly worrying, as is the high incidence of miscarriages and perinatal deaths
The authors of the declaration tied the COVID-19 vaccines to sudden deaths in previously healthy young people. As with the claim about excess death, this claim was previously shared on social media and fact-checked by Health Feedback and others and found to be unsupported. Some claims specifically implied that the COVID-19 vaccines are causing Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndrome (SADS).
Sudden deaths are unexpected, fatal events that occur within one hour of the onset of symptoms in apparently healthy individuals; the majority of sudden deaths are cardiovascular and arrhythmic in origin, meaning most of these fatal events involve the heart, blood vessels or irregular heartbeats. SADS is a form of sudden death that occurs in people under the age of 40 who, due to a genetic problem, have an abnormal heart rhythm that leaves them at a higher risk of suffering a cardiac arrest; in the U.S., about 4,000 children and young adults die from a SADS condition every year.
The claim that the COVID-19 vaccines are implicated in the large number of sudden deaths in previously healthy young people is factually inaccurate in two ways. First, previous fact-checks of similar claims have shown that there is no evidence that there has been a rise in sudden deaths or SADS. Second, there is also no evidence that the COVID-19 vaccines are causing sudden deaths or SADS. As such, this part of the claim is unsupported.
The declaration also linked the COVID-19 vaccines to a high incidence of miscarriages and perinatal deaths. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) defines miscarriages, also called early pregnancy loss or spontaneous abortion, as the loss of a pregnancy before 13 completed weeks. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare defines perinatal deaths as a stillbirth (fetal death prior to the birth of the baby) or neonatal death (death of a live born baby) of a baby of 20 or more completed weeks of gestation or of 400 grams or more birth weight.
This is again a common piece of misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines that has been debunked by vaccine clinical trial data and large-scale studies which show that the COVID-19 vaccines dont increase the rate of miscarriages and negative pregnancy outcomes. Moreover, because pregnant women are at a higher risk of developing severe COVID-19, which increases the risk of pregnancy complications, the vaccines actually reduce the risk of severe COVID-19 and of pregnancy complications. This is why medical associations like ACOG and government agencies like the CDC recommend that all pregnant women get vaccinated for COVID-19. As such, this part of the claim is inaccurate.
to date there have been more than 11 million reports of adverse effects and more than 70,000 deaths co-related to the inoculation of the products known as covid vaccines
To back their claims about the COVID-19 vaccines, the declaration referred to reports from the CDCs VAERS, the UKs Yellow Card System, the Australian Adverse Event Monitoring System, Europes EudraVigilance System and the WHOs VigiAccess Database claiming these showed over 11 million reports of adverse effects and more than 70,000 deaths. The declaration, however, failed to acknowledge a major limitation of these adverse event reporting databases: that reports arent confirmed, requiring further analysis to determine if the COVID-19 vaccines caused or contributed to the event reported.
VAERS, which stands for Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, is a database maintained by the CDC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration where anyone can submit a report about an adverse event following inoculation with a US-licensed vaccine. On the CDCs About page for VAERS, a disclaimer states that VAERS reports alone cannot be used to determine if a vaccine caused or contributed to an adverse event or illness, adding that the number of reports alone cannot be interpreted as evidence of a causal association between a vaccine and an adverse event.
The Yellow Card scheme is run by the U.K.s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and it collects and monitors information on suspected safety concerns involving a [sic] healthcare products, including vaccines. The MHRA routinely publishes summaries of Yellow Card reporting for the COVID-19 vaccines. In a 1 September 2022 summary, the MHRA stated that many suspected ADRs [adverse drug reactions] reported on a Yellow Card do not have any relation to the vaccine or medicine and it is often coincidental that symptoms occurred around the same time as vaccination. Later in the same summary, the MHRA emphasized that it is therefore important that the suspected ADRs described in this report are not interpreted as being proven side effects of COVID-19 vaccines.
Australias Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) evaluates and monitors the safety of therapeutic goods, including collecting reports on adverse events to medicines and medical devices. TGA maintains a Database of Adverse Event Notifications (DAEN), and on the DAEN webpage TGA makes the limitations of this data clear. Specifically, TGA notes that adverse events are suspected of being related to a medicine or vaccine, but this relationship is usually not certain the symptom may be related to the underlying illness or to other factors, adding that there might be no relationship between the adverse event and the medicine or vaccine it may be a coincidence that the adverse event occurred when the medicine or vaccine was taken.
EudraVigilance is a database managed by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) that collects and analyzes reports of suspected adverse reactions to medicines in the European Economic Area. Similar to other databases, EudraVigilance facilitates the early detection of suspected safety issues with drugs. EudraVigilance also includes a disclaimer stating that the information on this website does not reflect any confirmation of a potential link between the medicine and the observed effect(s) and that the number of suspected side effects in EudraVigilance should not serve as a basis for determining the likelihood of a side effect occurring.
VigiAccess is the World Health Organizations (WHO) global database of reported suspected side effects to medicinal products, such as drugs and immunizations. As with the previously mentioned databases, the WHO makes clear that VigiAccess cannot be used to infer any confirmed link between a suspected side effect and any specific medicine and that the database cannot be used to determine the likelihood of a side effect occurring.
In short, while all five databases are important tools for monitoring vaccine safety, the existence of a report in any of these databases alone isnt sufficient proof that the COVID-19 vaccines caused or contributed to an adverse event. Reports need to be further analyzed to determine if vaccination played a role in the adverse event. As such, the claim made by the doctors and scientists in the declaration that there have been more than 11 million reports of adverse effects and more than 70,000 deaths co-related to the COVID-19 vaccines is misleading, for it doesnt consider that adverse event reports in these databases are unconfirmed.
Misinterpretation and misuse of these databases to claim that the COVID-19 vaccines are harmful have been rife since the beginning of COVID-19 vaccination campaigns. Such claims have primarily focused on VAERS, but have also been made about the Yellow Card scheme, TGAs reporting system, EudraVigilance and VigiAccess.
The declaration, which as of 16 September 2022 had been signed by nearly 11,000 individuals, made a series of inaccurate, unsupported and misleading claims claims about the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines and used these to urge for a worldwide stop to COVID-19 vaccinations. In reality, the COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective and are estimated to have prevented nearly 20 million deaths from COVID-19 in the first year of the vaccine campaign.
Dear DU Community,
New student orientation and classes have started bringing students, faculty and staff together on campus to launch another academic quarter. Our first fall weekend with cooler temperatures has arrived, filling the air with scents of pumpkin spice and beautiful Colorado sunsets. Fall also heralds the season for flu shots which, this year, coincides with the release of the new bivalent COVID-19 vaccine booster.
Flu Vaccine Clinics
As in the pasttwo years, the University will require theinfluenza (flu)vaccinefor all students, faculty and staff living, learning or working on campus.Youmustreceive and upload proof of yourinfluenzavaccination to yourMyHealth portalor have an approved exemptionno later thanDec. 15, 2022.
Human Resources and Inclusive Community (HRIC) and the Health and Counseling Center (HCC) are teaming up once again to offer the flu vaccine free of charge to all students, faculty and staff. Flu shot clinics will be held in or around the Community Commons beginning in October and continuing in November. A schedule of the clinic dates will be posted on DUs new Public Health website soon.
New Public Health Website Launched
DUsPublic Health websitehaslaunched, replacingDUs COVID-19 website.Along withtheflu clinicschedule, the public healthwebsitehighlights the Universitys public health initiatives,offers links to resources, andincludespublic health protocols,communications,andtheCOVID-19dashboardandalert levels.
Update on COVID-19Booster
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recommends thenew bivalent COVID-19 boostersfor individuals age 12 and over (Pfizer) and age 18 and over (Moderna). HCC is offering COVID bivalent booster shotsstarting 09/30/22 and then the first Friday by appointment only through your myhealth account. We have also partnered with Safeway to bring bivalent booster clinics to DU in October and November for all students, faculty, and staff. Individuals must make an appointment through your myhealth account to receive a booster shot at these clinics. Due to the limited availability of the updated boosters, we understand that DU community members who are subject to the vaccination requirement may need additional time to remain up-to-date on their COVID-19 vaccinations. Thus, we are continuing to follow theCDC guidelines, allowing those individuals until December 15th to meet the requirement of being up-to-date with COVID-19 vaccinations by uploading proof of vaccination or having an approved exemption.
Exemption Forms
As a reminder,at this time,DU offersexemptionsto the COVID-19 vaccination requirement based onmedical,religiousand philosophicalgrounds.See the HCC website for instructions on uploading your vaccinationdocumentationor seeking an exemptionforinfluenzaandthebivalentCOVID-19boostervaccines.
Thank you foryour continuedattentionto the University protocolsas we work topromote the health and well-being of ourcommunityandminimizethe impactcaused by COVID-19and the flu.If you have any questions,please emailpublichealth@du.edu.
Sincerely,
Eric Hartman
Executive Director, Enterprise Risk Management
Therese Mashak
Public Health Project Manager, Enterprise Risk Management
SAN DIEGO (KGTV)Health officials are encouraging people to double up and get the new flu shot and a COVID-19 booster at the same time.
COVID-19 infections are expected to spike- and experts are also forecasting more flu cases this season.
"We are seeing cases already. There have been cases of the flu where people end up in the hospital and in the intensive care units already so we're already seeing it. That is a sign that- we're hoping we don't get this twindemic that people are already talking about," said Dr. William Tseng, assistant chief of staff at Kaiser Permanente.
Dr. Tseng said while some say the covid-19 pandemic is over - it's not for our vulnerable communities and encourages getting vaccinated for both covid-19 and the flu.
He suggests the quadrivalent flu vaccine for those 65 and older. Appointments are available for both at pharmacies around the county. One of the biggest questions people are asking is is it safe to get both the covid-19 vaccine and flu shot at the same time?
"Yes, you can! We've looked at the studies. It is safe to get at the same time and a lot of our vulnerable population have been getting it at the same time already," said Dr. Tseng.
He said that the side effects of getting both vaccines at the same time are nothing more than the typical aches and fevers that mean the body is doing its job.
"It's getting your body ready to fight off any of the infections either from covid or from the flu. You're building basically heat-seeking missiles to as soon as they show up a target that area and destroy that virus," said Dr. Tseng.
Dr. Tseng said while we know there is still a possibility of getting sick after getting vaccinated it still prevents death.
"These two are powerful tools that we have to prevent you from dying unnecessarily," he said.
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On todays episode of The Confluence: We talk about the widening availability of COVID-19 vaccines that target certain variants of the virus; and a conversation with an organizer and speaker for the second annual Eradicate Hate Summit, which is convening nearly 300 experts in Pittsburgh to talk about solutions to a rise in hate crimes and hateful rhetoric.
Todays guests include: Dr. Amesh Adalja, infectious disease physician and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security; Laura Ellsworth, partner-in-charge of global community service initiatives at Jones Day and co-chair of the summit, and Julie Platt, board chair of the Jewish Federations of North America.
New COVID-19 boosters will target the original virus and new variants(0:00 - 8:36)
Earlier this month, the CDC recommended an updated COVID-19 booster shot, called the bivalent vaccine. It was formulated to better target newer variants of the virus. As the weather gets colder and seasonal illnesses return, what can we expect from the updated booster as we head into a new season?
It better reformulates the material in the vaccine to target BA.4 and BA.5, so that when your antibodies are formed against this new vaccine, they form against BA.4 and BA.5 versus the original version of this virus, says Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
There is no efficacy data for the new vaccines because they werent tested in humans, but data from mice show the antibody levels are predicted to be protective, says Adalja.
As COVID-19 becomes a seasonal disease, Adalja says the main concern is that hospitals are able to manage the flow of severely affected patients.
We've got to get less focus on cases and just really celebrate the fact that this is now an outpatient illness, says Adalja.
The second Eradicate Hate Summit is convening this week in Pittsburgh(8:48 - 22:30)
In 2021, the Anti-Defamation League tracked a 34% increase in antisemitic attacks, compared to 2020. Other attacks tied to extremism also increased last year.
A global summit is convening in Pittsburgh this week with nearly 300 experts and others motivated to reduce, and perhaps eliminate completely, incidents tied to hate.
Last year, we were very deliberately broad. We went very broad so everyone could see the full landscape, says Laura Ellsworth, co-chair of the summer and partner-in-charge of global community service initiatives at Jones Day. This year, we're going deep, so we have seven tracks that are focused on specific issues of particular interest, which include things like [the] rise of hate among young people.
Julie Platt, board chair of the Jewish Federations of North America and will be giving a keynote at the conference.
What I hope will go forward from this summit is partnerships that grow and that see it and that identify it, says Platt. If we can address it as partners, understanding that hate, sadly, has a lot of recipients, and if we can join together to look at what causes it and how we might address it, won't that be better for all of us?
The summit begins today and ends Wednesday.
The Confluence, where the news comes together, is 90.5 WESAs daily news program. Tune in Monday to Thursday at 9 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. to hear newsmakers and innovators take an in-depth look at stories important to the Pittsburgh region. Find more episodes of The Confluence here or wherever you get your podcasts.
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A pharmacist administers the newest COVID-19 vaccine during a clinic for seniors at the Southwest Senior Center earlier this month in Chicago. E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images hide caption
A pharmacist administers the newest COVID-19 vaccine during a clinic for seniors at the Southwest Senior Center earlier this month in Chicago.
President Biden's declaration that "the pandemic is over" could complicate the administration's effort to battle COVID-19, public health experts say.
Biden made the remarks in a Sunday broadcast of 60 Minutes. "We still have a problem with COVID. We're still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over," he said. "If you notice, no one's wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape. And so I think it's changing."
The president's comments come as public health officials are trying to convince Americans to get a new booster shot, and as the White House has worked unsuccessfully for months to convince Congress to provide more than $22 billion in new funding for the COVID-19 response. Since Sunday night, Republicans have already used his words to question vaccine mandates that are still in place for the nation's military and other federally funded programs.
At the same time, nearly 400 Americans are dying each day of COVID, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Multiple public health experts called Biden's remarks "unfortunate."
"When you have the president of the U.S. saying the pandemic is over, why would people line up for their boosters? Why would Congress allocate additional funding for these other strategies and tools?" said Dr. Celine Gounder, an epidemiologist and senior fellow with the Kaiser Family Foundation. "I am profoundly disappointed. I think this is a real lack of leadership."
The White House is currently fighting an uphill battle in Congress to secure $22.4 billion in emergency COVID-19 funding to support vaccinations, testing and further research. Some Republican support is needed in the Senate to secure the funding, which the administration has been seeking since the spring. It has been hard to come by as some GOP lawmakers argue that there is still unspent money from earlier COVID-19 funding measures that can be used.
In announcing the funding request earlier this month, an official told reporters on a briefing call that there is not currently "enough funding to get through a surge in the fall." The administration has already stopped the program to send free test kits to Americans because of a lack of funds.
The president's words could undercut the effort to get this money further.
Republicans are already using the statement to question the justification for ongoing pandemic measures, including the military's vaccine requirement and mandates for vaccines and masks in federally funded Head Start education programs.
"Biden admitted last night that the COVID pandemic is over. In other words, there is no 'ongoing emergency' to justify his proposal for student loan handouts," said Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.
Some public health experts agreed with Biden's characterization of a "change" in the pandemic. "It is a reasonable thing to do as we collectively move on from this emergency footing that we've been on for the last couple of years, and try to navigate a new normal," said Dr. Bob Wachter, chair of UCSF's Department of Medicine. "It's an appropriate way of thinking about the threat as it stands today."
Acknowledging the shift shouldn't stand in the way of funds for COVID-related efforts, said Dr. Tom Frieden, who led the CDC during the Obama administration.
"We don't have a pandemic of Alzheimer's disease or influenza or heart disease. But Congress still needs to fund programs to address those problems," he said.
The Biden administration's public health leaders have sometimes struggled at times to present a clear, unified message about COVID-19. His administration has at times been criticized for a lack of communication or issuing guidance that seemingly conflicts with available data.
Now, the president's remarks have thrown another wrench into the mix at a crucial moment.
The administration has just rolled out a new bivalent booster shot designed to target the omicron subvariants that have dominated caseloads in the country in recent months, and the agency is working to convince Americans to go out and get it. (Since the CDC recommended the shot earlier this month, hundreds of thousands of Americans have received it.)
But health officials have long struggled to convince Americans to get their shots. Only 68% of Americans completed their original vaccine course, and fewer than half of those have gotten any booster shot.
Most troubling are booster rates for people over 65, said Jennifer Nuzzo, the director of Brown University's Pandemic Center. Data from the CDC show that while the vast majority of older Americans got the original vaccines, far fewer only about a quarter have also taken the two original boosters.
"If we do nothing else to reduce the number of deaths from COVID, we need to make sure that people who are at the greatest risk of severe illness and death and that's people over the age of 65 that they get their booster," Nuzzo said. "I don't want to inadvertently send the signal that that's not something they need to do anymore."
She and other public health experts pointed to the winter, when a surge of new cases is likely as cold weather pushes socialization indoors, and holidays prompt people to travel to visit family and friends. A winter wave of cases will require tests, vaccines and other efforts to combat COVID, they said.
"I would say, let's not declare the pandemic over," said Dr. Carlos Del Rio, an infectious disease specialist at Emory University. "Let's say that we're in a very good place, and we need to continue working hard in order to stay in that good place."
NPR's Arnie Seipel contributed reporting.
Only about 20% of Israeli children between the ages of five and 11 have received a COVID-19 vaccine to date, according to the latest data published by the Ministry of Health.
A new study of more than 1,800 Israeli parents, conducted by researchers from Bar-Ilan University's Azrieli Faculty of Medicine and its affiliate hospital the Galilee Medical Center, pinpoints some of the reasons that explain the low vaccination rate among this age group.
The study, recently published in the journal Human Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics, was conducted in November 2021, two weeks ahead of the vaccine rollout in Israel for children aged five to 11. Among the key findings that emerged: less than half (43.6%) of parents of children in this population said they were planning to vaccinate their children against COVID-19.
A key finding among those who said they would vaccinate was that parents' top priority was not to protect their children against COVID-19 (55.9%), but to allow them to return to school and everyday life (89%) and to assure financial resilience (77.9%). Moreover, parents who indicated that they would not vaccinate were more concerned about the safety of vaccines (53.1%) than the danger COVID-19 posed to children (37.9%).
"Many parents don't want to vaccinate their children because they don't believe COVID-19 causes severe illness," says Dr. Amiel Dror, of Bar-Ilan University's Azrieli Faculty of Medicine and the Galilee Medical Center, who led the study. "This data can assist health authorities in shaping educational and communication campaigns for vaccines to show parents, among other things, that COVID-19 can be dangerous to anyone," added Dror, who collaborated with Prof. Michael Edelstein, of the Bar-Ilan Azrieli Faculty. Medical student Niko Morozov, from Tel Aviv University, contributed to collecting and analyzing the data.
In the survey of parents, one section included information about socio-demographic characteristics including age, gender, area of residence, household composition, number of children, parental education, parental COVID-19 vaccination status, and self-reported side effects from the vaccine (major, mild, or no symptoms), and a question on intention to vaccinate their child(ren) against COVID-19. In the second section, responders indicated why they were or were not intending to vaccinate their children against COVID-19.
The survey found that parents who had not been vaccinated themselves were less likely (13.1%) to vaccinate their children than those who received three (61.8%), two (48.2%) or one (32%) dose of the vaccine. Parents who had side effects after being vaccinated were less likely (57.8%) to vaccinate their children than those who were vaccinated and experienced major (19.6%) or minor (51.1%) side effects.
Female parents and parents above the age of 35 were more likely to vaccinate than male parents and parents aged 35 and younger (47% vs. 40%).
The availability of the vaccine for use in children aged five to 11 is not a guarantee that parents will inoculate their kids. "Our findings suggest that, for COVID-19, the traditional perception of vaccination benefits such as protection against severe illness has been superseded by indirect benefits such as returning to regular societal life and education institutions, as well as assuring financial resilience for the family," the authors of the study wrote. "While this finding is not surprising considering the severe disruption to normal life caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is not clear whether this perception of the societal utility of vaccines will continue to impact the perception of other vaccines beyond the pandemic."
Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics
Reasons underlying the intention to vaccinate children aged 5-11 against COVID-19: A cross-sectional study of parents in Israel, November 2021
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