The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) coincidentally issued its own vaccine recommendations Tuesday. The organization recommended children aged 6 months to 23 months should receive COVID-19 vaccines unless they have allergies to the ingredients. Older children should also receive the vaccines if they’re at elevated risk of transmitting the virus to others at high risk of COVID-related complications.
That breaks with the CDC’s softer recommendation for parents and clinicians to use “shared decision-making” to decide whether children 6 months and older should be vaccinated.
HHS communications director Andrew Nixon accused the AAP of “undermining national immunization policymaking” by making recommendations that differed with federal guidance. He added in his written statement that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “has stood firm in his commitment to science, transparency, and restoring public trust.”
The Integrity Project also plans to synthesize data on vaccine safety and effectiveness for older adults at elevated risk for infection-related hospitalizations and deaths, and for the general population. The project is creating a searchable website so people can look up vaccine safety and effectiveness for different demographic groups.
The focused analysis of studies published over the last year limited the conclusions. The researchers found plenty of evidence supporting the strong effectiveness of the nirsevimabc vaccine in preventing RSV-related hospitalizations and medical complications in children. But none of the most recent studies offered safety or effectiveness results for clesrovimab, an antibody therapy also federally recommended to reduce the risk of RSV.
The analysis agreed with prior studies in finding a risk of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, in children who received COVID-19 vaccines. Dr. Harleen Marwah, a pediatrician at Massachusetts General Brigham for Children, presented the results and said the risk appeared greatest when children received second doses but diminished with subsequent doses. One study included in the analysis found up to three cases per 100,000 recipients, mostly males, in those who received the Pfizer version of the COVID vaccine.
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