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Vaccines are only available to children as young as 12. That might soon change after the FDA’s vaccine advisers meet on October 26 to discuss data from Pfizer’s vaccine trial among children aged 5 to 11. However, parental hesitancy may prove to be an obstacle, as only a third of those surveyed by Kaiser Family Foundation Vaccine Monitor said they would give their child a jab.

The reluctance to get vaccinated is likely driven by fluctuating guidance from health officials earlier in the pandemic. Initially the CDC said that pregnant people could get the vaccine but it did not recommend it. That’s because the initial vaccine studies did not intentionally include pregnant people, although there were some participants who became pregnant during the studies. But that all changed in the summer. In late July, two leading OBGYN associations threw their unequivocal support behind the vaccine, and in August, the CDC formally recommended the vaccine after studies showed no increased risk of miscarriage. Last month, the CDC sent out an urgent plea that strongly recommended pregnant people get the shot immediately.

Still, low vaccine uptake in this population persists. And it’s translating into a worrying uptick in hospital admissions that is leaving some new mothers stuck in hospital and fighting for their lives for weeks before ever holding their newborns. Others will never meet their babies.

At least 180 pregnant people have died from Covid since the start of the pandemic, with 22 deaths recorded in August alone, according to the CDC. The death rates among this group are particularly sobering, given that annual maternal mortality rates excluding Covid hover around 700 annually. More than 22,500 pregnant people have been hospitalized with Covid since the start of the pandemic, with 12% of those cases resulting in admission to the ICU, according to the CDC figures.

The outlook in England is even more bleak. One in five of the country’s most critically ill Covid patients are unvaccinated pregnant women, the National Health Service (NHS) said in a Monday statement. Pregnant women accounted for almost a third (32%) of all women between the ages of 16 and 49 on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) – a medical therapy used only when a patient’s lungs are so damaged that a ventilator cannot maintain oxygen levels, the NHS said. This was up from just 6% at the start of the pandemic. The NHS figures were released to encourage expectant mothers to get the shot. England’s chief midwife, Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent, said the statistics were “another stark reminder that the Covid-19 jab can keep you, your baby and your loved ones, safe and out of hospital.”

Globally, Covid vaccine guidelines for pregnant and lactating people still vary, with 51 countries explicitly recommending that some or all pregnant people should receive the vaccine, according to the COMIT Covid-19 Maternal Immunization Tracker. The vaccines are permitted for pregnant people in 53 countries and in an additional 23 countries for people who are essential health workers or who have underlying health conditions. A total of 32 countries do not recommend the vaccine for pregnant people yet.

Meanwhile, two studies from researchers in the US and Belgium suggest that the incidence of Covid among children appears to be comparable to that among adults. This is leading public health officials to consider the messaging around vaccination strategies for kids as the rollout extends to younger populations.

YOU ASKED. WE ANSWERED.

Q: When will the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine booster be available for all adults in the US?

A: On Tuesday, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) confirmed its vaccine advisers will not be convened to consider the requested amendment to the booster’s emergency use authorization – which means the decision could come any time. 

Two studies published in September show that Covid vaccines do not increase the risk of miscarriage. Researchers at the CDC studied data from more than 2,000 pregnant people who got vaccinated. They found no higher risk among this group than for pregnant people in general. Miscarriages are common – between 11% and 22% of all recognized pregnancies end in miscarriages before 20 weeks of gestation, they said. This rate did not go up among the vaccinated, researchers said.

There is evidence the immune response prompted by both vaccines and viral infections can temporarily affect menstrual cycles. So studying these effects is important to mitigate any fears, according to Dr. Victoria Male, a reproductive specialist at Imperial College London. “Vaccine hesitancy among young women is largely driven by false claims that Covid-19 vaccines could harm their chances of future pregnancy,” Male wrote in the British Medical Journal last month. “Failing to thoroughly investigate reports of menstrual changes after vaccination is likely to fuel these fears,” she added.

“Most people who report a change to their period after vaccination find that it returns to normal the following cycle and, importantly, there is no evidence that Covid-19 vaccination adversely affects fertility,” Male said.

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READS OF THE WEEK

Chinese blood bank samples will provide ‘vital clues’ into origins of pandemic

This comes as India’s top court on Monday approved the government’s decision to pay about $670 for every Covid-19 death in the country as compensation to the next of kin of those deceased. The payments will total more than $300 million, based on India’s current death toll, according to CNN’s calculation.

The store of up to 200,000 samples, including those from the closing months of 2019, was pinpointed in February this year by the World Health Organization’s panel of investigators as a possible source of information that could help determine when and where the virus first crossed into humans.

UK schools are the new battleground in the Covid disinformation war

Secondary school students enter their school for the first time this year in Sheffield, England, on September 3.

Ardern admitted Monday the virus was “a tentacle that has been incredibly hard to shake.”

At one school in central England, a headmaster had to get the police involved after receiving “abusive and threatening messages” from campaigners who had put up posters accusing the school of “treating children like experimental animals.”

While parents in the UK generally need to authorize vaccination for children under 16, children can overrule vaccine-hesitant parents if a clinician considers them “competent” to do so, the government said.

Before the coronavirus hit, companies could rent a humble 20-foot or 40-foot box with relative ease, allowing them to move goods at a low cost. Containers have a lifespan of about 15 years before they’re recycled into low-cost storage or building solutions. But empty boxes remain scattered across Europe and North America, while supply chain delays mean even more are needed to fulfill orders.  

Why Colin Powell’s cancer likely reduced his protection from the Covid-19 vaccine

On Monday, fully vaccinated Sydney residents, who make up more than 70% of the city’s adults, emerged from their so called “cave,” reuniting with loved ones in nursing homes and returning to restaurants, bars and gyms. But all that hard-earned freedom will come at a cost, Ben Westcott writes, with national modeling suggesting that Sydney will see thousands of new infections and inevitable deaths.

What happens next will be critical for both the city and Australia as a whole. Other countries in the region are also watching closely to see if Sydney can succeed in keeping case numbers and deaths low enough to avoid overwhelming hospitals, while still allowing business to resume and people to get on with their lives.

TOP TIP

One of the highest-risk settings during school hours is during mealtime, when kids aren’t wearing masks and could be crowded together. As a parent, you can take steps to reduce risk by asking what provisions your child’s school can offer during lunch and snack time, says CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen

“The one concerning – though very rare – side effect is myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, which appears to have the highest incidence among males of adolescent and young adult age. It’s important to note that the myocarditis associated with the mRNA vaccines is generally mild and resolves with no long-term harm – and that Covid-19 itself can cause myocarditis,” she added.

More data is needed however, to determine what protection those antibodies may provide to the baby.

LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST

Grief is something we all experience at different stages of life, even more so during this pandemic. But what happens when you must mourn the loss of your own child? In honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, Dr. Sanjay Gupta shares the great strides being made in the fight against pediatric cancer through the passionate commitment of parents, doctors and health care advocates. LISTEN NOW.