Teen COVID rate doubles rest of Kansas as FDA approves Pfizer vaccine for ages 12-15

Kansas teenagers, who have the highest COVID-19 case and test positivity rates in the state, may now get vaccinated.

The Food and Drug Administration on Monday amended the emergency use authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to allow children ages 12 to 15 years old to get vaccinated. The two-shot mRNA vaccine already had emergency approval for people 16 and older.

“Today’s action allows for a younger population to be protected from COVID-19, bringing us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy and to ending the pandemic,” Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock said in a statement. “Parents and guardians can rest assured that the agency undertook a rigorous and thorough review of all available data, as we have with all of our COVID-19 vaccine emergency use authorizations.”

Advisors with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are scheduled to meet Wednesday to recommend how the Pfizer vaccine should be used among adolescents. The vaccine can start being administered after the CDC approves those recommendations.

The Sedgwick County Health Department offers the Pfizer vaccine at its mass vaccination clinic in downtown Wichita. Appointments can be scheduled online or by calling 316-660-1029, though walk-ins are welcome.

Vaccine approval for older children comes as Kansas teenagers are getting infected at more than twice the rate of the rest of the population.

For the week of April 25 to May 1 — the most recent full week of COVID-19 data in Kansas Department of Health and Environment metrics reports — the statewide rate was 51.3 new cases per 100,000 people. The 14-17 age group had a rate of 102.32 per 100,000 people.

Sedgwick County numbers show a similar trend. That same week’s countywide case rate was 71 per 100,000, while the 14-17 age group had a rate of 123.97 per 100,000.

By federal standards, a rate of 100 new cases per 100,000 people in one week is a red zone indicator.

Similar age discrepancies exist in the positive test rates.

Sedgwick County had a positive test rate of 5.17% for the week of April 25 to May 1, while the 14-17 population had a positivity rate of 10.16%.

The most recent statewide testing rate numbers are for the week beginning April 18, which had a 3.38% positivity. The statewide 14-17 age group had a positivity rate of 5.84% that week.

KU doctors urge vaccination

Doctors at The University of Kansas Health System encouraged parents to get their children vaccinated.

“Please really consider getting your kids vaccinated,” said Dr. Mitchell Douglass, who specializing in child psychiatry and serves as the medical director of KU’s Marillac Campus.

Vaccine approval for younger children is expected in the fall, possibly in time for the school year.

“I know my kiddos are going to get it (the vaccine),” said Dr. Dana Hawkinson, KU’s medical director of infection prevention and control. “It’s going to help keep them well, reduce their risk greatly, especially of that multisystem inflammatory disease.”

Hawkinson said he is hopeful that getting children vaccinated will keep schools open during the fall.

Vaccinating children is also important for reaching herd immunity, which public health experts estimate will require inoculating 70-85% of the entire population. Data from the CDC as of Sunday showed that 17,464 Kansans aged 16 and 17 have gotten at least one dose of a vaccine.

While rare, some children do experience severe disease and complications from COVID-19.

As of Thursday, the American Academy of Pediatrics had reported 306 child deaths of COVID-19 from 43 states, New York City, Puerto Rico and Guam.

One Kansas child, a 6-year-old, has died from COVID-19, according to the KDHE. The state has had 14 cases of the multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, also known as MIS-C. Since March 31, there have been 16 children hospitalized with COVID-19, including six children from Sedgwick County.

The FDA reported that the Pfizer vaccine was 100% effective at preventing COVID-19 in a study of people aged 12 to 15. Zero of the vaccine recipients were infected. Long-term safety monitoring will continue.

Child COVID trends

Children continue to be a growing proportion of COVID-19 cases in Kansas, KDHE data show.

In the first 13 months of the pandemic, children accounted for 12.1% of all cases. As of March 31, the 302,372 total cases included 12,013 cases in the infant to 9-year-old age range and 24,436 in the 10-17 age group.

March ended with a new law championed by the Republican-controlled Legislature and signed by Democrat Gov. Laura Kelly that required all public school districts in Kansas to provide an in-person learning option. Every school in Kansas was already offering in-person classes by the time the law passed.

In the five and a half weeks since in-person classes were mandated, children have accounted for 21.0% of all new cases. As of Monday, there had been 310,927 total cases, with 12,609 in the infant to 9-year-old age group and 25,636 in the 10-17 age group.

The higher proportion of cases among children is a nationwide characteristic of the spring surge, which has been fueled by coronavirus variants.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and Children’s Hospital Association report on COVID-19 from Thursday showed that nationwide, children account for about 14% of the cumulative case total and about 24% of new cases.

Kansas has the 10th-lowest percentage of total cases that were children, according to the report of 48 states plus New York City, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. The Kansas cumulative case rate for children is in the middle of the pack compared to other states and territories.