Medical experts hoping for youth COVID-19 vaccination availability by September – Joplin Globe

As the delta variant continues to significantly affect the younger population, medical experts are hoping to have COVID-19 vaccinations available for youth this fall.

Pfizer-BioNTech has requested authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to expand the emergency use of their COVID-19 vaccine for individuals ages 12 to 15. Albert Bourla, Pfizer chairman and CEO, said during a quarterly earnings conference call in May that they plan to submit an emergency use authorization for two groups children ages 2 to 5 and 5 to 11 years of age in September.

I think that timing is a little unfortunate, but thats just one parents opinion, said Dr. Robert McNab, Freeman Health System director of COVID-19 services.

Mercy Hospital in Joplin and Freeman Health Systems have both reported a recent uptick in COVID-19 patients needing ventilators and intensive care, especially among younger adults. This is largely due to the fast-spreading delta variant, which is now the dominant COVID-19 variant in the United States.

On Friday, Freeman Health System reported 57 inpatients with COVID-19 in its Joplin and Neosho hospitals, 12 of them in intensive care and 10 on ventilators. About 92% of the current inpatients are not vaccinated.

With the rest that we got a few months ago, I think we all were very, very hopeful that we had gone around that curve, and we werent going to have this level of disease again, said Paula Baker, Freeman president and CEO. But unfortunately, it has returned with a vengeance. Its a very different situation than we had hoped for.

Mercy Hospital Joplin reported 75 patients Friday at its clinics in Joplin and Carthage, 16 of whom are in intensive care and 20 of whom are on ventilators.

Freeman Health System held a media briefing Friday in Joplin to address the latest surge in COVID-19 cases in the region. Hospitalizations have been on the rise, with the overall death toll among COVID-19 patients rising as well.

Medical leaders have likened the recent spike in cases to last years winter peak in which officials saw an average of one death per day. At Freeman, McNab reported 30 community members died of COVID-19 in July alone.

As I look at the numbers today, consistently two-thirds of all the (COVID) inpatients are in their middle 60s and younger, and thats a very different population than what weve really been experiencing in the past year and a half, McNab said. Its a younger, much healthier population that is now getting much sicker, and I think its because of this delta variant.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently reversed its K-12 school mask guidance to include masks to be worn by everyone, despite vaccination status. With the fall semester around the corner, many parents are left wondering what this year will look like for their children.

Previously, they (CDC) had said if you are fully vaccinated and you want to go about the world without a mask, thats a more reasonable thing to do, McNab said. But they kind of walked that back a little bit, and the reason for that is because we know that its possible for the vaccinated to get this infection and for them to carry that infection and be asymptomatic and be able to spread that into the population further.

Baker said she predicts several school districts will heavily rely on masks this year to combat the spread.

I think a lot of schools will be requiring masks during the school day, which I personally think is a really good idea, Baker said. Its just a protection for the children in that environment where its a little more difficult for them to maintain appropriate distances.

Freeman opened a third treatment ward for COVID-19 patients last week in response to the growing infections. The intermediate treatment unit was created for seriously ill patients with respiratory failure, rather than sending them to the ICU, where more space is needed for ventilator patients and other critical patients.

McNab said the intermediate unit has been successful at giving COVID-19 inpatients the next level of care, which is a step down unit from the ICU level. The new unit has averaged anywhere from 10 to 13 patients per day. About 20% of beds at Freeman are now being used for COVID-19 patients, according to McNab.

It allows us to open up more ICU resources for those people that are really, really ill, he said.

The only way out of the pandemic is to get people in the community vaccinated, McNab said, to reach herd immunity. The more the virus mutates, the more it runs the risk that current vaccinations could lose efficacy, he added.

The more that we can all do as a community, I think the better the results that were going to get, he said.

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Medical experts hoping for youth COVID-19 vaccination availability by September - Joplin Globe