Fact check: COVID vaccines won’t affect teens’ development or fertility, experts say
Now that children between the ages of 12 and 15 can receive COVID-19 vaccines, parents are concerned about the shots’ potential to interfere with teens’ development, hormones and future fertility.
“I don’t want either of my kids to turn around when they’re in adulthood and ask, ‘Why did you do this?’” Saadia Faruqi, 45, of Houston, Texas, told the Chicago Tribune.
But experts are confident that parents have nothing to worry about, thanks to how the COVID-19 vaccines work.
“Oh my goodness, people have been saying this about every vaccine since I can remember!” Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Infectious Diseases, told CNN. “There is no evidence at this point that this vaccine will affect development or fertility.”
The Pfizer vaccine — the only one authorized for emergency use in teens — does not contain live coronavirus. Instead, it includes mRNA, a molecule naturally found in our bodies, that teaches our immune system to pump out protective antibodies.
At no point does the vaccine “interact with a person’s DNA or cause genetic changes because the mRNA does not enter the nucleus of the cell, which is where our DNA is kept,” according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
If coronavirus vaccines were to interfere with teens’ development, they would need access to their DNA, experts say.
“The mRNA is made out of nucleic acids, which are basically the building blocks of all our cells, and these aren’t incorporated into anything,” Maldonado told CNN. “They just fall apart and are eliminated.
“Bottom line: I think that’s ridiculous,” she added.
And based on COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials and real-world evidence on pregnant women, scientists and doctors know the shots cannot impact teens’ fertility down the road. There’s also no biological reason or proof that hormones associated with puberty can impact immune responses to coronavirus vaccines, experts say, or cause more intense side effects than those felt by adults.
“These particles cannot cause any long-term issues, such as autoimmune diseases or impacts on fertility or pregnancy,” Dr. Stacy De-Lin, a gynecologist and family planning specialist in Florida, told ABC News. “There is no link between the COVID-19 vaccines and fertility — it’s an urban legend.”
The CDC also notes “there is currently no evidence that any vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines, cause fertility problems.”
“Even during the vaccine trials, some of the women inadvertently got pregnant. There’s nothing even to empirically support a link between infertility and the COVID vaccine,” Akiko Iwasaki, a professor of immunobiology at the Yale School of Medicine in Connecticut, told the Chicago Tribune. “I have two daughters myself who are in the 12-14 year age group; I totally understand the fear. But there’s really no basis for it.”
Pfizer announced in March that its vaccine reduced risk of coronavirus infection in children 12-15 years old by 100%, meaning no vaccinated kids were infected during the late stage trial. It’s a larger boost in protection against COVID-19 compared to people between 16 and 25 who benefit from a 95% reduction in infection risks after receiving their final of two doses.
But 100% efficacy during clinical trials doesn’t guarantee that the same level of protection will be seen in the general population, which includes millions of kids, not thousands.
Side effects in children such as arm pain, fatigue, headache and joint pain were comparable to those in adults. No serious allergic reactions were reported among the kids in the study.
The company did not mention how well its vaccine worked against the more contagious coronavirus variants, but the variants have been spreading during the late stage trial period.
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