McHenry County medical officials host webinar, answer parents’ questions regarding youth COVID-19 vaccine

MCHENRY COUNTY – The McHenry County Department of Health held the first of their two part webinar on July 14 for local parents who have questions about the COVID-19 vaccine, available to youth aged 12 to 17 as the school year approaches.

The virtual event featured Dr. Jon Kaufman, Pediatric Associates of Barrington, Dr. Lisa Messinger, from Northwestern Medicine, and Dr. Laura Buthod, a retired pediatrician and MCDH Medical Advisor.

Messinger answered if the COVID-19 vaccine is safe for children. 

The vaccine contains MRNA, she said. She said COVID-19 has a spike protein, “and all MRNA does is its instructions for how to build that spike protein.”

Messinger said once a particle transfers that MRNA into our cells, it instructs the cell to create the spike protein, which is presented outside of the cell membrane and allows the body to recognize it as foreign and create an immune response. 

“It’s important to remember that the MRNA is completely destroyed once it’s transcribed, and it never enters the nucleus’ cell. It doesn’t interact or change your DNA or genetic material in any way,” Messinger said. 

Although the vaccine has not been FDA approved, it was ruled as an emergency use authorization due to time and urgency, Messinger said. And data has proven its safety and efficacy. 

The FDA could approve the vaccine within 1-2 years, Messinger said, but Kaufman answered why parents should not wait for their approval in order to get their children vaccinated. 

Kaufman said variants of the COVID-19 virus are forming quickly. 

“The delta variant is the most common variant, and it’s up to about 58% as of today. It is highly transmissible, which means that it’s easier to spread, it’s more contagious than the original COVID-19 virus,” Kaufman said; however, the vaccine is effective against those variants, he said. 

Some parents were curious if being previously infected by the virus means they are immune and therefore do not need the virus, but Kaufman said it has not yet been proven how long immunization lasts after the vaccine, let alone a previous infection. 

A previous infection does not guarantee immunity to new variants, like the vaccine guarantees, Kaufman said. 

Buthod answered why a child needs the COVID-19 vaccine. She said the Yale School of Public Health recorded the vaccine saved 279,000 lives and prevented 1.25 million hospitalizations in the past few months. 

 “[COVID-19] is 2-3 times deadlier than the flu,” Buthod said.  

Not only will students miss 10 days of school if tested positive, post COVID-19 conditions could occur, such as serious multisystem inflammatory syndrome, Buthod said. She said it has occurred in more than 4,000 people, and ⅔ of those have been admitted to the intensive care unit. 

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome has caused long lasting fatigue, brain fog, and decreased exercise tolerance, she said. 

Parents expressed they are concerned their children could develop Myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, upon receiving the vaccine; however, the likelihood of Myocarditis being induced from the virus is greater than from a direct result of receiving the vaccine, Buthod said. 

Buthod said if medical officials were to give 1 million second doses over a four month period, there would be up to 69 cases of vaccine induced Myocarditis cases in boys and eight to 10 in girls out of a million doses. 

Patients have seen a change in menstrual cycles, Messinger said, but she has seen the change before the vaccine. 

Buthod said there could be a correlation between menstrual cycle irregularities and the stress of getting a vaccine and living in a pandemic. 

Messinger said teens have spent more time at home since COVID-19 broke out, causing them to experience dietary changes and weight gain. Those factors play a major role in menstrual cycle irregularities. 

“Our number one priority right now is to keep the amount of active disease in our community as low as possible, so that it is safe for kids to go back to school,” Kaufman said.