Children and COVID-19 Research Library

The Covid pandemic is a timely opportunity to try to broaden our understanding of the links between education and health literacy and explore the vaccine-decision process with a view to identifying interventions that will positively influence vaccine uptake.

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged health-care systems across the world and magnified health inequalities related to systemic racism and globalization. As of February 2021, there have been over 100 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over two million deaths reported to the World Health Organization. Within the United States (U.S.), Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and other People of Color (BILPOC) are diagnosed, hospitalized, and die at 1.5, 3.3, and 2.8 times the rates of Whites, respectively. BILPOC are also more likely to have defined medical conditions associated with higher risk of severe COVID-19 infections. The disproportionate morbidity and mortality seen among BILPOC adults also impacts BILPOC adolescents and young adults (AYAs). Compared with Whites, BILPOC AYAs are 1) more likely to be essential workers and unable to work from home; 2) less likely to be able to take sick or medical leave, jeopardizing their jobs and families' livelihoods, 3) more likely to reside in intergenerational households with greater crowding; 4) more likely to experience the grief and psychological stress from the death of a loved one due to COVID-19, and 5) more likely to live in households with increased incidence of COVID-19 comorbidities. These and other effects of structural racism can undermine AYA success in remaining free from COVID-19, including limiting vaccine access and uptake.

Vaccines developed in high-income countries have been enormously successful in reducing the global burden of infectious diseases, saving perhaps 2.5 million lives per year, but even for successful cases, like the rotavirus vaccine, global implementation may take a decade or more. For unincentivized vaccines, the delays are even more profound, as both the supply of a vaccine from developing country manufacturers and vaccine demand from countries with the high disease burdens have to be generated in order for impact to be manifest. A number of poverty-associated infectious diseases, whose burden is greatest in low-income and middle-income countries, would benefit from appropriate levels of support for vaccine development such as Group A Streptococcus, invasive non-typhoid salmonella, schistosomiasis, shigella, to name a few. With COVID-19 vaccines we will hopefully be able to provide novel vaccine technology to all countries through a unique collaborative effort, the COVAX facility, led by the World Health Organization (WHO), Gavi, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). Whether this effort can deliver vaccine to all its participating countries remains to be seen, but this ambitious effort to develop, manufacture, distribute, and vaccinate 60–80% of the world’s population will hopefully be a lasting legacy of COVID-19.

The Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) of WHO asked the Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety (GACVS) to provide support to a review of evidence on the safety of vaccinations in pregnant and lactating women. This request related to uncertainties about the safety of vaccination – whether intended or inadvertent – of pregnant women during mass vaccination campaigns. Such evidence would be particularly important in situations where manufacturers do not recommend the vaccination of pregnant women on solely precautionary grounds. However, evidence related to this issue is limited, as pre-licensing clinical trials of vaccines do not usually include pregnant and lactating women. Reports available also provide limited post-licensing data, as once again, pregnant women are usually not included in clinical trials. This in turn has limited the ability to make evidence-based decisions and provide optimal guidance on the use of vaccines in this population.

COVID-19 pandemic was responsible for disrupting routine immunization activities all over the world. Aim of the study was to investigate the reduced adherence to the national children vaccination schedule during the lockdown period in Italy. Through social channels, the Italian Pediatric Society conducted a survey among Italian families on children vaccination during lockdown period.

Vaccination in pregnancy provides an important opportunity to target illnesses that are known to impact particularly on pregnant women, fetal development and cause newborn illness. The ability to create antibodies via safe vaccination that cross the placenta can provide protection against maternal, congenital and newborn infection. There are currently multiple vaccines being developed which have direct benefits for pregnant women and their newborns. Group B Streptococcus, Respiratory Syncytial Virus, Cytomegalovirus, Zika, Ebola, Malaria and coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 are all being researched with the view to developing a safe vaccine available for pregnant women. There is also an increased movement towards including pregnant women in vaccine development and trials, challenging the historical, ethical and medicolegal arguments against their involvement in such research.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been ongoing for close to a year, with second waves occurring presently and many viewing vaccine uptake as the most likely way to curb successive waves and promote herd immunity. Reaching herd immunity status likely necessitates that children, as well as their parents, receive a vaccine targeting SARS-CoV-2. This exploratory study investigated the demographic, experiential, and psychological factors associated with the anticipated likelihood and speed of having children receive a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine in a sample of 455 Canadian families (858 children; parents’ mean age = 38.2 ± 6.82 years).

The behavioral changes among Japanese, along with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic, may affect the seasonal influenza epidemic in Japan and change the influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE). Influenza VE in children was estimated in the first influenza season (2019/20) overlapping with the COVID-19 epidemic by conducting a single-center, test-negative case-control (TNCC) study. Effects of prior influenza infection and vaccination in children were assessed for the 2019–2020 season.

The Americas committed to strengthening maternal and neonatal immunization (MNI) through the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Regional Immunization Action Plan (RIAP)2016–20. This paper describes the progress toward RIAP MNI-related targets and those related to improvement of data quality and information systems; analyze national MNI policies and vaccination coverages; and identify enablers and challenges of monitoring and reporting MNI vaccination coverage in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).

As the COVID-19 vaccination programme starts to be rolled out, many young women are hesitant to accept the vaccine, citing concerns about fertility. Meanwhile, those offered the vaccine during pregnancy must decide whether they will accept, even though pregnant people were excluded from the clinical trials. Data on accidental pregnancies that occurred during the trials and, increasingly, outcomes in pregnant people who receive the vaccine can help these groups to make informed decisions.

This briefing calls for a global response and the global, equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in order to make real progress on ending the pandemic and minimizing its impact on children. It makes the case for why this is a matter of rights, equity, public health, and economics and must be addressed as a matter of urgency. It sets out key areas of action for governments, donors, and other key stakeholders.

With the development of multiple effective vaccines, reducing the global morbidity and mortality of COVID-19 will depend on the distribution and acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination. Estimates of global vaccine acceptance among pregnant women and mothers of young children are yet unknown. An understanding of the challenges and correlates to vaccine acceptance will aid the acceleration of vaccine administration within these populations. Acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination among pregnant women and mothers of children younger than 18-years-old, as well as potential predictors, were assessed through an online survey, administered by Pregistry between October 28 and November 18, 2020.

As older adults, health care workers, firefighters, and others roll up their sleeves for a COVID-19 vaccine, there's a flurry of research to get shots to children, for whom no vaccine has yet been authorized. Even though young people are less likely to fall seriously ill, doctors and scientists agree that vaccinating them is crucial for their own protection and that of the broader population. And because companies already have solid data from adult trials, they are running smaller studies in children that focus on safety and immune responses to COVID-19 vaccines.