An Open Letter to My 12-Year-Old Daughter -- what you need to know about the COVID vaccine
from your mama (who happens to be an epidemiologist)
Dear K —
When the ACIP approved the Pfizer vaccine for 12-15 year-olds on Wednesday, I made an appointment for you to get your shot right away. While I expect (given that I have schooled you on all things viruses, vaccines, and prevention during the past year) you understand the value/importance of the COVID vaccine, I want to share with you how important this vaccine is and just how proud I am that you stepped up without fear or complaint to get your first shot.
(I’m pretty sure you know this, but…) My passion and calling in life is to create healthy communities. I am committed to preventive healthcare; love research; advocate for vaccines; and have dedicated my career to educating the next generation of public health professionals. Knowing all of this, you might be surprised to know that I was a wreck at your two-month check-up with the pediatrician (in 2008) where you received four vaccinations. Despite years of training in epidemiology and several years working in public health (advocating for vaccines), it was hard signing the consent forms and permitting them to jab you four times in your super skinny legs. I kept repeating to myself - I don’t want you to get polio; you could die from whooping cough; diphtheria is a terrible disease that will kill you - over and over throughout the appointment.
While it was hard listening to your cries during this set of vaccinations and all those that would follow, each of these shots provided you with protection against deadly diseases. This is primary public health prevention — where we prevent a disease from occurring before you are exposed to or have the potential of developing that disease. Vaccines are one the best and most efficient forms of primary prevention — right up there with safe drinking water, clean air, access to health care, and shelter.
When the COVID-19 pandemic forced you home from school in March of 2020 and my training in disease prevention mandated you to do 7th grade from home this year, my heart's desire was for you to get vaccinated; so that you’d never have to face COVID-19 as an acute illness or its long-term effects. As we anticipated the approval of the Pfizer vaccine this past week for your age group, I spent hours (and some sleepless nights) looking at the safety and efficacy data prior to making your appointment. I wanted to be 100% sure that getting you a COVID vaccine was the healthiest decision for you.
I want you to know…
The vaccine is safe. The clinical trials of the vaccine showed that kids in your age group did suffer side effects — sore arms (like yours today), fatigue (I know, you’re never tired), and mild fevers. There were no cases of Bells Palsy, anaphylactic shock, blood clots, MIS-C, or death caused by the vaccine.
The vaccine is effective. Not a single kid who received the vaccine in the Pfizer clinical trial developed COVID-19. Not one! This means the vaccine is 100% efficacious.
The vaccine will NOT take away your ability to have a child one day (if you choose to do so). As you know, the mRNA vaccine you received yesterday contains the genetic material that will form the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in your body. When your immune system sees this spike protein, it will form antibodies to fight that infection as well as a memory so that when you are exposed to the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the future your body will know how to fight off infection. The spike protein in the COVID vaccine shares one amino acid with another protein that is needed to keep the placenta attached to the uterus during pregnancy. Sharing a single amino acid does NOT mean these two proteins are the same. The vaccine will NOT trigger your immune system to attack the protein needed to get pregnant.
Let me illustrate… please imagine my telephone number. It is 10 digits long. There is a 2 in my phone number, and there is also a 2 in your dad’s phone number. Despite the fact that we share a digit in our phone numbers, if you think you can reach your dad by calling my number — you’re wrong. If you dial my number, you’ll get my phone. Just because we both have a 2 in our phone number does not mean our numbers are the same. The same is true for proteins and amino acids. Just because a single amino acid in the COVID vaccine matches another amino acid in a different protein in your body does not mean they are one in the same. Your immune system is so amazingly complex that it recognizes even the smallest differences in protein structures; just like you know that my phone number is different from your dad’s.
You are responsible for working to end the epidemic of misinformation that is plaguing our society (do you see the pun there?!? see… I can be funny). You have the responsibility to check your sources, ask questions, and to never spread information you do not understand on social media or with your friends. Seek out the truth; share it with conviction.
There is A LOT of evidence showing that the COVID vaccine does not cause long-term harm. Please note the wording of that sentence. I did not use the words “proof” or “prove” because in science we gather evidence and make conclusions; we test hypotheses and accept or reject the null hypothesis. We cannot prove that something will never happen, but we can look at the historical and biological evidence and come to a strong, evidence-based conclusion.
Vaccines have been given to children in the United States since the 1940s. And the side effects (some mild and others deadly) have been monitored throughout that time. What we have learned from the history of vaccinations is that (so-called) long-term adverse health effects associated with vaccinations occur within two months of the vaccination. There is NO evidence of harm outside that two month window. That is why Pfizer provided two full months of follow-up data as part of their clinical trial. Additionally, history shows that even the most severe side effects associated with a vaccine could have also been caused by the infection itself. This means getting infected with the virus also carries the risk of the adverse health effects.
Additionally, the mRNA vaccine has a “tail” attached to it, which decreases in length as the spike protein is made. When the tail get too short, the mRNA breaks down and is removed from your body as waste. The vaccine components only stay in your body long enough to trigger your immune system and then they are gone.
Getting your vaccine protects you and our community. I probably sound like a broken record, but your health is intimately tied to the health of those in our family and in our community (our local and global community). One of the many lessons this pandemic has taught us is that community health needs to be prioritized. We need to prioritize “health in all policies.” We need global vaccine access and acceptance. The number of COVID cases and deaths may be decreasing in the United States, but in many parts of the world the virus is ravaging our neighbors there. The threat of COVID looms heavily over us if others are still getting sick and not getting their vaccines.
By getting this vaccine, you are contributing to a global effort to end this pandemic; to stop community spread of this virus; and to fight the epidemic of misinformation. You are also creating individual immunity that will allow you to thrive and be healthy.
And I could not be more proud of you.
Love, your epidemiologist mama
Thank you for this. As I search for information before my 6 year old is eligible, so that I can be ready when that time comes, I value and appreciate all of your insight and information.