- [Ray] Well, joining us live right now
is Dr. Eric Robinette.
He is a Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialist
at Akron Children's Hospital,
and I invited Eric on to the show,
because you've seen there's new CDC Guidelines Emergency Use
for vaccines now for the ages of 12 to 15, 12 plus,
so that is big news as far as getting the vaccines out.
What about parents saying, do my kids,
do my teenagers need the vaccine
when we talk about the battle against an infectious disease,
like COVID-19, and Dr. Robinette,
why don't you take the story from there
and talk about how you look at this vaccine now available
for the ages 12 plus?
- [Eric] Sure Ray, thanks for having me on.
So, when I think about a vaccine,
the two questions that I ask, I think probably
are the same questions that everybody else asks,
which is, does it work, and is it safe?
And so I think I always want people to understand that,
although this vaccine was developed
and studied very quickly,
it was also studied extremely thoroughly and extensively,
and looking at the data for not just adults
but also the more recent data for 12 to 15 year olds,
and all of the post-marketing data from adults that we have,
the tens of millions of doses of the Pfizer vaccine
that we've given, the data's very clear
that it's a very safe and a very effective vaccination.
So I think that's the first thing that I ask
and then I think the question about 12 to 15 year olds
that you're probably getting at,
that a lot of people have is,
people understand that COVID is less,
let's say less dangerous to an adolescent
than it is for an elderly adult.
And so do they really need the vaccine,
I guess, is the question some people would ask.
And I think there's three things that we have to consider.
So one, since the pandemic began,
one and a half million adolescents have been sick with COVID
and with the less people that are missing school
for 10 days, feeling ill, you know,
needing to be taken care of, right?
So it's a significant impact to be sick with it,
even if you're not hospitalized,
or not at risk of dying from it at a high level,
still 13,000 teenagers have been hospitalized.
So even though it's not as likely to cause a serious illness
in an adolescent, it's not impossible.
And the third thing is, you know, 40,000,
they've estimated about 40,000 children
in the 11 to 17 age group have lost a parent to COVID.
And although we don't understand necessarily the extent
to which the vaccine reduces transmission,
we know that it does help reduce transmission.
And so that's an important role
that vaccinating adolescents plays.
- [Ray] With us is Dr. Eric Robinette again,
Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialist
at Akron Children's Hospital.
And Eric, we've learned a lot about COVID-19
in the last 15 months.
Some things we thought that were really weren't as
important, and then there's other aspects of this battle
that maybe we didn't know that, now we know about COVID-19
here 15, 16 months later.
When we look at the ages 12 plus and the role they have,
unfortunately, in COVID 19, we've heard asymptomatic,
we've heard about them being haulers and carriers
of COVID-19.
Is that a significant role in this battle
against this virus?
- [Eric] Yeah, absolutely it is.
Now I think there's, you know, there's so much information
on COVID-19 and it's hard for people to sort out
what's true and what's not true.
It absolutely is true that adolescents have a higher rate
of asymptomatic infection and that they can transmit
COVID-19 to others, I mean, do transmit COVID-19 to others.
There have been some, you know, statements of children
being super spreaders, like they are for other viruses.
That probably is not the case.
They're probably just regular spreaders,
but they're still spreaders.
And any time we can eliminate a link in the chain
of somebody that can get sick with and, or spread COVID-19,
we protect everybody, not just ourselves.
And so that's an important, definitely an important piece
of the consideration.
And there was, you know, there's been a lot of discussion
about how much does vaccination reduce transmission,
and we're still studying that, but I saw a paper
relatively recently that showed a 55% reduction
in asymptomatic illness in adults who had been vaccinated
compared to those who had not been vaccinated.
So we certainly have enough evidence to believe
that it does have a substantial impact on transmission.
And it doesn't necessarily mean that it's a magic bullet
that makes it impossible for you to transmit it,
but at a public health level, it's significant.
- [Ray] Dr. Eric Robinette is with us again,
Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialist
with Akron Children's Hospital.
Some parents might be apprehensive saying, okay,
the vaccine, Eric, is out there for adults,
but what about that same dose going into my teenager's arm?
How will that affect them?
And I guess, take me into the lab a little bit
and talk about the dose of the vaccine
that the 12 plus will get.
Is it the same as an adult or is it different?
- [Eric] So it is the same dose, you know,
and, you know, as far as how we study vaccines,
we really study them in adults first.
And you saw that with the COVID-19 vaccine
and we've taken that same approach.
And then we sort of slowly extend the trials
down into younger and younger children.
So we understand that children are not just little adults
physiologically and that is reflected in that approach
to studying, however, you know, a 12 to 15 year old
is physiologically a lot closer to an adult
than a six month old or a six year old, right?
And so for this study, what they actually did
was an extension of the adult trial.
So they basically added 12 to 15 year olds
into the adult trial protocol.
They studied the same dose and that gives us some advantages
in that, that's a dose that's already very well understood.
And what they reported essentially was that
the side effect profile in the children was very similar.
Mostly, you know, the same kind
of mild to moderate side effects in the same rates
that they were seeing in adults.
And the children actually produced higher antibody titers,
which is sort of expected.
That's the biggest difference between a 12 to 15 year old
and an older adult, is that they tend to produce
more robust immune responses after a vaccination,
which is, which is a good thing, as long as it
doesn't come with more side effects
and it didn't appear to come with more side effects.
- [Ray] Eric, how important is this?
Is this a game changer now that the vaccine can be
distributed to the 12 to 15, 12 plus crowd?
- [Eric] Yeah, well, I think the vaccine in general
is a game changer.
Vaccines are without question,
the most powerful tool that we have to fight infections.
You know, as someone who treats infections every day
for what I do, if you asked me if I had to give up
every tool in my armamentarium except for one,
what's the one that I would keep,
and that's a vaccine.
Vaccines are like, game changer is the perfect word
for what a vaccine is, when we're talking about
fighting infections.
As far as the 12 to 15 year olds specifically,
it is a huge step in the right direction.
Every group of people that we can protect
is going to end the pandemic faster.
- [Ray] With us is Dr. Eric Robinette,
Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialist,
Akron Children's Hospital.
And then Eric, wrapping up our conversation this morning,
then I wanted to talk a little bit
about what Akron Children's is doing
with this panel discussion that you're a big part of,
but Eric, we're talking about 12 plus now.
Is there clinical testing going on for the vaccine
for under 12?
- [Eric] Yes, there's a clinical trial
for the Pfizer vaccine for six months to 11 years old.
So that's available through enrolling in a clinical trial
and they are testing, like to your question earlier, Ray,
they are testing different doses for that age group.
And so that's a trial that's going to take
a little bit more time.
I understand they're hoping that they'll have results
in the early fall, but yeah,
that trial is ongoing for the six months to 11 years.
- [Ray] Well, let's talk now about Akron Children's.
You're part of it, along with Dr. Begum,
as part of a panel discussion
you've put together for an education,
coming out of children's and COVID-19.
- [Eric] Yeah, so we just, we know from our own experiences,
living in the same world as everybody else,
that it's actually very difficult
to get accurate information about COVID 19
and the COVID-19 vaccines,
and there's a lot of competing voices out there,
and, you know, at Akron Children's,
we just really, really care deeply about
the health of the children that we serve
and want their parents to have the best possible information
to make good, healthy choices for their kids.
And so we put that panel discussion together just to share
what we know with you all.
- [Ray] It's available, akronchildrens.org,
akronchildrens.org, to get more information.
Eric, thank you for the time.
Terrific information this morning.
Appreciate you squeezing us onto the calendar,
but I saw you're part of the panel.
Haven't had you on the show yet to talk about this
and we've had different infectious disease doctors join us.
I thought it was real important to get you in
on the pediatric side.
So thank you for the insight this morning.
- [Eric] My pleasure, Ray.
- [Ray] Dr. Eric Robinett,
Infectious Disease doctor, Akron Children's Hospital,
joining us live this morning here on WAKR.