CORRECTION: This story has been corrected to reflect Elizabeth Rigney was part of a Moderna COVID-19 vaccine trial.
The first day Elizabeth Rigney’s parents asked if she wanted to be part of the Moderna vaccine trial, the 8-year-old gave a rather adult answer.
“I might,” Elizabeth said pragmatically.
The next day, she inched closer to a decision.
“I might, might,” she responded.
A day later, the third grader had made up her mind. She would do it. She wanted the coronavirus to be over. Asking at Christmas for the COVID-19 pandemic to be over hadn’t worked. But the shot might, she reasoned.
Read more:COVID vaccine scheduler, appointments at MS county health departments for children 5-11
Maybe the vaccine could fully do away with the very virus that, at one point, had her learning virtually and later left her stuck behind a face mask and 6 feet apart from her classmates.
The Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, the trial for which Elizabeth was part of, has not been authorized for people under 18. Its use is still being studied in children. However, more than a week ago, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention greenlighted the Pfizer vaccine, at a smaller dose, for children aged 5-11.
Mississippi began its rollout Monday. Pediatricians far and wide swiftly backed its use, saying the immunization will allow schools to resume normally, lower transmission rates and keep children who do get the virus out of the hospital.
Elizabeth is here to say getting the shot is OK. Dr. Johnathan Shook, a Hattiesburg pediatrician, is here to say it’s safe and effective.
“We know that it works and we can give it with confidence,” Shook said. “I think it’s just a modern scientific marvel that we have this vaccine to help protect us and get us out of this pandemic.”
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Some parents of Shook’s young patients have been anticipating the vaccine for months, hoping to restore normalcy.
For others, the COVID-19 delta variant that surged through the state in the summer, spiking case counts and deaths, especially among children, had them aching for a pediatric dose of the shot.
While the coronavirus doesn’t typically present as severely in children as compared to adults, it’s changed how kids learn, left some without parents and grandparents and left others struggling with mental health issues.
The state has reported almost 100,000 pediatric COVID-19 cases in children since the virus crept into Magnolia State in March 2020, according to the Mississippi Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. When the delta variant surged July through September, six children died from coronavirus-related causes.
Read more:Mississippi pediatricians recommend children get COVID vaccine to prevent long COVID
“COVID is definitely a threat to our kids,” Shook said.
One of those threats is Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children — MIS-C. It’s a rare and serious condition thought to be a delayed reaction to COVID-19 that attacks the body’s healthy cells. With MIS-C, different parts of a child’s body can become inflamed, like the skin or gastrointestinal organs.
Others infected with the virus can have lasting side effects, known as long COVID.
Myocarditis and pericarditis — heart inflammation — are also concerns parents bring to the table. But some parents worry heart inflammation is actually triggered by the vaccine.
“Adolescents 16 and up and some young adults in their 20s did have a little bit higher incidence of myocarditis after the COVID vaccine,” Shook said. “The numbers were relatively small. The majority of those cases were mild and went away within a week or so.”
He labeled the likelihood of heart inflammation low and reassured that researchers and scientists have a close eye on vaccine side effects for what he calls “the most monitored rollout” in vaccine history. Not every side effect is directly correlated with getting the shot, Shook explained.
When it comes down to it, the Pfizer shot for children 5-11 has been found to be over 90% effective in that age group. And for the parents who are uneasy about the speed in which the vaccine was greenlighted, Shook offers the science behind them.
“Vaccines have been helpful for decades for lots of different diseases,” Shook said. “This vaccine has been shown to be very safe with the research studies that we have on it, and does not look to cause any significant short term effects right now.”
Messenger RNA — mRNA — vaccines, like the Pfizer, do not use a live virus. Instead, they’re created in a lab to teach cells how to make a protein that triggers an immune response inside the body, according to the CDC. The vaccine was held to the same Food and Drug Administration standards as other immunizations.
“The vaccines still appear to be the wisest and safest choice,” Shook said.
He would know. He’s a pediatrician. He keeps up with the research. And three out of his four children have gotten the shot.
Getting the jab isn’t so bad
For Elizabeth, who wanted to be a scientist back in August, this was her chance to make history. She offered up her left arm Aug. 19 and got the first stick. The second shot was on Sept. 20.
It hurt a little bit, the precocious older sister to Clara said, but really, it’s no different from any other shot she’s had.
Bethany Rigney, Elizabeth’s mother, didn’t force her daughter to get the shot for the Moderna vaccine trial. She knew Elizabeth, who is “extremely tough” and mature for her age, would make the decision that best suited her.
Between licks of her cotton candy ice cream, almost two months out from her second dose, Elizabeth said at first she was scared when she thought about the shot. But then, she thought about how she just wanted the pandemic to be over.
The Moderna vaccine trial means Elizabeth isn’t certain she got the real deal or a placebo. However, Bethany thinks the fever her daughter briefly spiked and a day of lethargy that followed are strong indicators Elizabeth is fully immunized against COVID-19.
“What would you say to somebody if you want to convince them to get the vaccine?” Bethany asked her daughter.
“I already said that,” Elizabeth reminded her. “It’s just a regular shot.”
Have a health story? Or a health-related tip? Send it along to shaselhorst@gannett.com, on Twitter at @HaselhorstSarah or call 601-331-9307.