NJ orders 51K doses of COVID vaccine for infants and toddlers, but will there be demand?

Scott Fallon
NorthJersey.com

With federal approval expected this week, Gov. Phil Murphy's administration has pre-ordered 51,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines for children under 5 years and is encouraging providers to extend their hours and prioritize young kids. 

But will the demand be there?

Vaccine hesitancy among parents is high despite efforts by pediatricians and public health officials to encourage shots and add a significant layer of protection against the virus. It's been an uphill battle because children are at far less risk of severe illness from COVID. Physicians have also been fighting a widespread disinformation campaign waged on social media. 

"It's been an ongoing battle with so much bad information out there that it's hard to counter at this point," said Sandra Adams, a biology professor at Montclair State University who specializes in viruses. "There's an ongoing concern among parents that these vaccines were developed too quickly. They weren't. There are years of research that have been put into these vaccines."

Only 36% of New Jersey children ages 5 through 11 years old have been fully vaccinated eight months after regulators approved the shots, according to the state Health Department. Nationwide, the rate is just under 30%.  

Only 1 in 5 parents nationwide said they would get their young children vaccinated right away, according to a survey last month by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Although the risk of severe illness to children from COVID is much lower than for adults, public health experts and physicians say inoculating infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers is especially important because the omicron variant caused a surge of pediatric hospital admissions this past winter.  

"The children who were unvaccinated were twice as likely to be hospitalized as those who were vaccinated," said Dr. Aspasia Katragkou, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Morristown Medical Center. "In this regard, COVID vaccines clearly protect children from severe illness."  

Still, data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that vaccination rates drop as age groups get younger — from a high of 93% for ages 65 to 74 to 29.3% for those ages 5 to 11.

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Much of the reason for the far lower vaccination rate among the young is because children appear to have been spared the very worst of the virus, health officials say. Of New Jersey's 34,000 COVID deaths, 17 have been under the age of 18. 

Still, lower risk does not mean zero risk.

About 372,000 children under 18 have tested positive for the virus in New Jersey — about 18% of all cases since the pandemic's onset in March 2020.

But the true extent of transmission among children has been hard to discern because many don't exhibit symptoms and therefore don't get tested. The omicron variant in December and January sent more children to hospitals than in prior waves. 

Life without quarantines

Despite the low rates, anticipation is high among parents who visit the popular "New Jersey Covid Vaccine Info" Facebook page and are already asking about who will have the shots and when.

Little information has been available for them. The state Health Department has not yet publicly released distribution plans. The agency will likely make weekly orders for the vaccine but will have to see how strong demand is, said Nancy Kearney, a department spokeswoman.  

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The draw for many parents is that the vaccines may bring younger children closer to life without quarantines and disruption in school and activities, as a summer rollout allows time for them to build up immunity before the start of nursery school or kindergarten, said Kathleen DiCaprio, a professor of immunology at Touro College in New York.

"The vaccines are not 100% protective, but the immunity provided by the vaccines will help build immune systems in preparation for current and likely future exposures," she said. "At this stage in the pandemic, having some kind of immunity is more favorable than none at all for the younger children." 

The road to approval

The federal Food and Drug Administration posted data on its website in recent days showing that pediatric vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna are effective. An FDA advisory committee is scheduled to meet Tuesday and Wednesday to review the data and will likely issue a ruling shortly thereafter.

Pfizer's vaccine consists of three doses for children ages 6 months to 4 years. Each dose is one-tenth of the amount adults receive.

Moderna has asked the FDA to authorize two shots for kids ages 6 months to 5 years, each containing a quarter of the dose given to adults.

If it is approved, the matter then goes to a CDC advisory committee, which is scheduled to meet Friday and Saturday. A decision is expected soon after. The Biden administration has set June 21 as a goal to begin giving doses. 

As of last week, states and pharmacies had ordered 1.45 million Pfizer doses and 850,000 Moderna shots out of 5 million available.

Like many scientists, Adams hopes more parents will allow their children to be vaccinated. "The risk of a side effect is nothing compared to the risk of the disease," she said. "It's something we have been saying since the very beginning."

This story contains material from The Associated Press.

Scott Fallon has covered the COVID-19 pandemic since its onset in March 2020. To get unlimited access to the latest news about the pandemic's impact on New Jersey,  please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: fallon@northjersey.com 

Twitter: @newsfallon