- [Interviewer] On the line with us right now,
we have someone who can
educate us on the pros or maybe the cons
of getting the vaccine to your child
as young as six months old.
Joining us right now we have Dr. Michael Bigham
from Akron Children's.
Doctor How are you?
- [Michael] I'm great, thanks for having me.
- [Interviewer] Yes, thank you.
So, if you don't mind,
just about how many vaccines
has Akron Children's Hospital administered.
- [Michael] We have given over 80,000 vaccines
since the pandemic started.
That's about 2%
of all of the vaccines given in the state of Ohio.
- [Interviewer] Well, that's great
that you've given so many and are people lining up for it
or are you pretty much giving it to,
are you pretty much giving it just to people
who are already in the hospital
that you're offering it to them?
- [Michael] So we continue to have a steady
and ongoing demand for the vaccine.
As an example, in the month of January
we still gave 5,000 vaccines
for the month of January.
About three quarters of those
are kids five to 11 years of age.
And about of those are kids 12 and older
some of which were booster vaccines,
for those 12 and older and some were first or second doses.
- [Interviewer] I'm curious, what are some of maybe the pros
what are maybe some of the cons of
vaccinating a child such as six months old?
- [Michael] I think we're all a little bit unsure
about what the data are going to tell
for the kids six months to five years of age.
And so what we know is that
Pfizer has submitted their data to the FDA.
The prediction is that
about a week from today on February 15th
the FDA is going to review the Pfizer request
for emergency use authorization
and the dose and data.
The dose that informed the data that they're presenting
are smaller dose.
So basically the adult dose was 30 micrograms.
The younger child dose was 10 micrograms.
And the dose that they submitted for
the youngest of kids was only three micrograms.
And they recommended two doses of that
in this emergency use authorization is what we understand.
We won't know the full details of that study
until the FDA has reviewed it and they release the data.
So everything I've mentioned
and the everything I might offer will be a bit speculative
until we see sort of the benefit of that vaccine
on the youngest of kids.
- [Interviewer] And I've had people texting right now.
They're like, honestly,
I have people that are texting me
and they're like, honestly I don't know
if I want to get my child vaccinated.
I'm vaccinated but I don't know if I feel comfortable
giving it.
Well, you can reassure that,
when, if this vaccine does come out
which it is likely that it will at some point,
that it'll be a much smaller dose.
What we're getting a shot of isn't going to be
the same shot that a eight month old child's going to get.
- [Michael] That's correct.
The older child dose is about a third of the adult dose.
And this youngest child dose is about a 10th
of the adult dose.
And so there's certainly a lower dose
but I think the questions that you're getting texts about
are the same questions that we're obligated to answer.
And answer honestly.
And so I think folks should all ask those questions.
And it's our job as healthcare providers
to answer those questions
I think we need to see what these data say.
And then we can give a really more informed answer.
I think it's not helpful to sort of
line item say everybody has to get vaccinated
or nobody should get vaccinated.
Until we see the data.
There might be nuances within those data
that suggest there are higher or lower risk kids
within that age population.
And I think that's probably the most important piece
is that we're open and honest with the parents
as they're making this decision for their child
- [Interviewer] Even when it comes to adults Doctor.
How important would you say having the vaccine is?
- [Michael] I think,
what we know,
and I'll first give the Akron Children's example,
and then I'll speak a little more broadly to adults.
If we look at
this subset of patients
who have been admitted to the hospital,
who have tested positive for COVID 19,
93% of those kids admitted to Akron Children's
who've tested positive for COVID 19
from January 1st of last year until a week ago
have been unvaccinated.
That's 8% have been vaccinated
of those 8% that are vaccinated
and admitted to the hospital.
Half of them had only one dose,
or were not far out from their second dose.
So I would consider them partially vaccinated.
So now we get down to only 4% of our admitted patients
who tested positive for COVID 19 have been vaccinated.
And of that
half of them are beyond their booster dose
and the other half are immune suppressed in some way.
So their vaccine likely didn't take a big benefit.
And so we are still seeing
amongst those kids that are hospitalized with COVID 19,
some demonstration that the vaccine remains protective
for kids who are,
if we're trying to keep kids
out of the hospital with COVID-19.
- [Interviewer] So yeah, I just wanted to see
if you're first hand,
which I assume you are
because you are a medical professional.
First hand seeing the benefits of the vaccine
- [Michael] We are.
And then if you look,
if you just read the literature
and listen to our adult counterparts,
they are still seeing the overwhelming majority
of their inpatient population who's sick with COVID
are those that are unvaccinated,
or immunosuppressed for some other reason.
- [Interviewer] so we're seeing from five to 11 right now
that is an age group that within the last three months
became eligible for the vaccine.
Do you see backlash from parents?
Do parents just randomly start talking to doctors
about why they aren't for the vaccine,
and then do your doctors kind of lay out the facts
and then make them form their own decision?
Or do most of the people that receive the vaccine
are they already for it?
- [Michael] So that's a great question.
I would say that one of the,
you heard me mention we in the month of January
gave almost 5,000 vaccines in our primary care offices.
And that for me is pretty compelling
that those are the medical home for these kids.
And so these are where these kids and their parents
are going, they're meeting with their pediatrician.
And I think some people come in with
a decision that's already been made
either to get a vaccine or not to get a vaccine.
But I think others come in with maybe,
a sense that they might get the vaccine
or a sense that they might not,
but they really wanna go to their healthcare professional,
where they have a trusting relationship
and understand the pros and cons.
And we think that fine approach.
I think informed decisions are really valuable.
And so we think our pediatricians are
more often than not able to have a
trusting and honest conversation with those families.
And we think many of them do decide
to get their child vaccinated
based on that honest, informed discussion.
There's a lot of misinformation out there
in the media.
And I think that one on one,
or one on two conversation with a family, and a patient,
and a parent, and a healthcare provider adds,
that's a lot of truth
to what might be otherwise misinformation out there.
- [Interviewer] So you're saying the best way doctor to get
correct information and form
a informed decision is to talk to your doctor
and not get it on Facebook.
I just wanna make sure I'm clear on that.
- [Michael] I think that there
there is a real value in talking with the pediatrician
or your healthcare provider
to have that honest conversation for sure.
- [Interviewer] Well, that's great to know.
It's great to hear it from you.
Anything else that we should know
regarding any COVID numbers,
or are there any new symptoms of within children
is everything pretty much staying the same?
We're not seeing many changes with COVID 19 symptoms.
What they've been for the last year now
are still the same in 2022.
- [Michael] Yeah, I think that's true.
Last few weeks we've seen a bit of decline
in pediatric COVID cases that are testing positive.
That's really reassuring.
We're still seeing some of those post COVID MIS-C cases
in the hospital.
We expect those will go down as the COVID cases go down.
And I think we're excited to review that vaccine details
on those kids six months to five years of age.
And we'll be excited to
have a conversation when those data come out,
and make that available to our patients,
if that's what the FDA recommends.
- [Interviewer] All right, Dr. Michael Bigham,
I appreciate you coming on.
And working on the front line
to making sure that our children stay healthy
and you and your team informing parents along the way
such a big task.
Thank you so much for everything you do.
- [Michael] Thank you, I appreciate it.
Have a wonderful day.