Covid & Kids Under 5: What’s Next?, By Jondi Gumz

COMMUNITY NEWS

Covid & Kids Under 5: What’s Next?

By Jondi Gumz

The White House plans to make 10 million doses of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine available for children under 5, once regulators grant emergency use authorization.

Pfizer announced the results of a clinical trial during the Omicron surge for a third booster dose involving 1,678 children — 10 got sick. 80.3% efficacy, Pfizer says.

Some parents are eager for the federal authorization, but not all.

The Kaiser Family Foundation reports 18% of parents of children under 5 plan to vaccinate them immediately, with 38% planning to wait to see if there are side effects, 27% with no plans to use the Pfizer product on their children, and 11% saying thy would do so only if required for school or day care.

Parents were surveyed in April, when Omicron subvariants began increasing cases.

Among parent concerns: Long-term effects.

Covid has claimed the lives of many elders, those 85 and older with pre-existing medical conditions and it’s easy for kids to catch Covid, especially the highly contagious Omicron subvariants, but deaths of children are few and far between.

In 46 states plus Puerto Rico, 0.00%0.02% of all child Covid cases resulted in death, the American Association of Pediatrics reported in June.

Could it be that young children represent an untapped windfall for the drug-makers?

It all depends on whether these vaccines are added to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vaccine schedule for children. See https://www. cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/hcp/imz/ child-adolescent.html

Cases Up

The highly contagious coronavirus Omicron subvariants have pushed up case numbers in California– but Santa Cruz County cases are on a rollercoaster, 1,715 on May 23 then 1,472 on May 26 and 1,705 on June 13.

This spring, the biggest spurt, May 9, after Mother’s Day, was 182 cases, and 179 on June 6 — graduation? — compared to 1,312 on Jan. 20.

On Tuesday, the state reports 24 people hospitalized with Covid, including one in intensive care, in Santa Cruz County.

The county posted two more deaths, one over 85 and one between age 75 and 84, both having medical conditions. One had been vaccinated and boosted.

Santa Cruz County updates the numbers on Mondays and Thursdays, but many people testing at home are not required so positive or negative home tests are not included in county figures.

Santa Cruz County along with much of California is rated “medium” transmission by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on its COVID tracking map. Hotspots are Sacramento County, Placer and El Dorado, all rated high risk. Subvariants of omicron (and waning immunity from vaccines) are suspected to be behind the latest wave of cases.

On Tuesday the CDC said BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants are estimated to make up about 8.3% and 13.3% of the coronavirus variants in the U.S.

Hospitalizations from Omicron had peaked in January, then plummeted and have been rising albeit slowly.

The state Department of Public Health reports test positivity, 23% in January, has ticked up from 1.7% to 9.1% and hospitalizations — 20,000 in January —dropped to 950 before rising to 2,700.

Test to Treat

Santa Cruz County offers “Test to Treat” sites, including the three OptumServe testing sites, open to anyone regardless of insurance or documentation status. Visit https://lhi.care/covidtesting/ and make an appointment. The closest are Felton library and the Santa Cruz County Governmental Center in Santa Cruz.

Statewide, Covid test positivity is 9.1 % , up from 6.6.% — and it’s 12.25% among Santa Cruz County students, according to the Santa Cruz County Office of Education.

For those who test positive and are at risk of severe illness, the CDC recommends asking your doctor for a prescription for Paxlovid, pills developed by Pfizer for higher risk individuals age 12 or older and given emergency use authorization by the FDA in December. Lagevrio, produced by Merck, also got emergency use authorization for mild to moderate Covid.

On May 17, the FDA announced kids age 5 through 11 are eligible for a PfizerBioNTech booster shot five months after the first. The goal is to prevent severe case among children this age.

So far, the new subvariants are very easy to spread but do not seem as dangerous as Delta.

There are more people hospitalized — 2,200 in California, double from where it was — but ICU admissions are rising much more slowly, and the number of deaths per day is trending down.

Santa Cruz County, which had 15 people hospitalized with Covid, now has 7, one in intensive care.

With 52,000+ county residents having had the infection, natural immunity may be a factor.

The CDC estimates almost 60 percent of the populace — including 76% percent of children over age 5 — have had Omicron or another coronavirus variant.

Lawsuit vs. State

California Parents United, founded by Carmel attorney Tracy Henderson, contends the State Department of Public Health guidance for schools is non-binding because the agency did not follow the rule-making process required by the Administrative Procedures Act.

If a child is refused in-pers0n instruction, Henderson advises filing a tort claim. Details at https://www.california parentsunited.org/call2action

Normal

Aptos is gearing up for the World’s Shortest Parade on July 4 in Aptos Village.

The city of Scotts Valley is seeking help to host its Independence Day parade and celebration at Skypark a day early, Sunday, July 3, with a fireworks celebration that night.

Capitola’s Twilight Concerts on Wednesday nights began June 15.

Starting June 16, the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk brings back live music Thursdays on the Colonnade, with Friday night movies starting June 17.

Proposed Laws

Amy Bohn of Protection of the Educational Rights of Kids in Newbury Park, which filed six lawsuits against vaccine mandates, asks California residents to keep watching Covid bills although five were shelved or pulled.

Sometimes measures that stall come back in a budget trailer bill — which avoids public hearings. Covid bills that remain active include:

SB 866: To allow children 12 and older to get Covid vaccines without parental consent. Passed June 1 by Senate, going to Assembly floor.

“COVID Update” page 9