I read that article as well. IMO, some pretty level-headed reporting.
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Clinical trials for <12 use of COVID-19 vaccines in the US:
Pfizer - BioNTech vaccine:
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04816643
Moderna vaccine:
https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04796896
A list of COVID-19 vaccine related clinical trials in the US:
Note that the Novavax trial is for age 12 and up:
Thanks, Iām familiar with clinicaltrials.gov, which unfortunately doesnāt help understand where those trials are in the processā¦e.g., whether they are fully recruited, etc., which one needs to know to forecast when readouts might become available. We know that Pfizer readouts should be available in September, as they have publicly announced that.
Pre-COVID-19, the situation of teenagers wanting to get vaccinated against parentsā wishes was already an issue:
Iāll chime in, as Iām sort of a mixed bag. Iām a healthcare worker and got my shots as soon as they were offered to me. My husband signed up the day it was available to him. But we waited on our 12-15 year old kids. They now have their first shot, but Iām not sure when theyāll get the second. We live in a high vax area (>85% of >=12 year olds have at least one shot) and Iām not convinced that the risk of transient myocarditis with the second shot, small as it is, is worth the extra benefit of the second shot at this point in time. I found the following interesting (yes, itās a medium article, which I take with a grain of salt, but I would hope that a professor of mathematics at Carnegie Mellon know his stats): Weighing myocarditis cases, ACIP failed to balance the harms vs benefits of 2nd doses | by Wesley Pegden | Medium
I am not saying I wonāt change my mind and get the second shot for the kids. But I want to wait. Does that make me vaccine hesitant? Maybe. But Iām still reading, my kids are still masking for all indoor activitiesā¦I feel l like Iām trying to be both a good citizen and a faithful parent.
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I donāt care about those folks either - but I do care about the ones they are spreading it to. 
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Itās actually a matter of correctly isolating the effects of the second shot and examining that marginal benefit vs. marginal harm. We know the marginal harm at least on a preliminary basis; Iāve heard both sides of the argument on whether the numbers are likely to be higher or lower but theyāll likely change one way or the other as more data is available. But if the marginal benefit from that 2nd shot is negligible because most of the benefit accrues already from the first shot then thatās - wow, thatās not how people are interpreting these slides. Most are assuming there needs to be two doses and donāt think further about it. And of course thatās what colleges are requiring (unless you are able to opt for a one-dose vaccine). Rochelle Walensky has been on several news shows with this risk/benefit analysis, assuring everyone that this myocarditis issue is a very small concern. The CDC needs to address this and if their analysis is misleading, they need to correct it.
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I have seen study reports of first dose of two dose mRNA vaccines ranging anywhere from 17% to 80% effective, depending on the location and variants of COVID-19 common in that location.
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@ucbalumnus , have you seen anything showing any difference in effectiveness for adolescents vs adults? I saw the original ā100% efficacyā after 2 injections, but Iām sure thatās dipped in the real world. But I havenāt seen much, if anything, re: post-1st jab for 12-15, and one could hypothesize their antibodies would be higher than adults due to a more robust immune response.
And all are higher than 0% . . .
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Vaccine reluctant diary continuedā¦
I was traveling this weekend by car through New England and the Northeast. I saw very few masks in places where there were still signs asking everyone, even the vaccinated, to wear masks. I got the feeling that those few wearing masks were likely to have been vaccinated.
I am going to text my antibodies again. I had IgM antibodies positive on two occasions in the spring.
If Novavax was already approved, I think I would get it today. Despite my moral concerns, I think the fact that I am dealing with a family crisis of sorts makes me feel like I couldnāt deal with covid on top of this.
It is similar here (I live in NC). I went shopping this morning and saw zero masks. What pandemic?
I would like to visit my siblings, who all live far away, mostly in places where there was never much interest in masking. I havenāt seen them since 2019, and itās been an awful year for each of them, for various reasons. Iām getting comfortable with my own familyās risk flying to my siblings. However, Iām feeling less comfortable with my siblingsā risk.
I spent part of yesterday trying to find more information on the severity of the delta variant. As far as I can tell, to estimate someoneās unvaccinated risk of hospitalization from the delta variant, I can take their age and add 20 years. That age groupās hospitalization/death risk with original COVID-19 is their risk with the delta variant.
For my siblings, who are in their forties, the risk versus the delta variant is therefore the risk of someone in their sixties versus COVID 1.0.
Hoping my math is wrong, but as of now Iām thinking a visit is ill advised. Regardless of their feelings about vaccination, I would have a hard time forgiving myself if I managed to bring them coronavirus.
SARS-CoV-2 Alpha variant - Wikipedia gives approximately a 65% increase in hospitalization and mortality at all ages for the Alpha variant.
Delta Variant Increases Hospitalisation but Vaccines Continue to Protect : āThe Delta variant of COVID-19 is associated with approximately double the risk of hospitalisation compared with the Alpha variant, according to a new nationwide study published as a research letter in The Lancet.ā
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/investigations-discovery/hospitalization-death-by-age.html gives a table of relative risks by age group.
Interestingā¦ in the area where I am, which has a high vaccination rate, it seems that most customers and staff in indoor stores were still wearing masks in stores where the rule recently changed to āmask required if unvaccinatedā.
However, I did notice that the few not wearing masks were mostly White (in areas where White people make up about a quarter to a half of the population). Could that be related, since New England tends to have a much higher percentage of population that is White?
Interesting survey results:
I live in the Northeast and thereās a high vaccination rate in my area. I have been fully vaxxed for months. Apart from grocery stores or small shops, I am not wearing a mask indoors. I mainly wear it to be respectful of workers who are still wearing them.
I have to trust science. Itās also summer, and there are hardly any cases in my area. Come the cold weather, I suspect I will be putting my mask back on. Or should there be a sudden jump in cases, I will wear it more often. Certainly Iām not wearing it when I am with friends, as we are all vaccinated.
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The mask mandate here in MA (not sure about other states) was removed a month ago. It takes awhile for people to lose the masks so an area that only recently changed may have more mask wearing. I would estimate here that maybe 10% of people in stores are still wearing them. I havenāt worn one for a couple weeks now.
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No mask here* since weāve been fully vaccinated for some time now and laws in states where weāve been recently have said masks are only required for unvaxed. I like being back to normal! Few here wear masks. Maybe 1 or 2%. Our county vax rate is around 40% so many are pretendingā¦ but as of yesterday PA has totally dropped the mask mandate so now it doesnāt matter.
- I did wear one to the dentist for a cleaning this past week since they still required it. Iād wear one anywhere they wanted me to. To us, masks arenāt that big of a deal, but now weāre willing to trust our vaccines, esp since weāve tested positive for the antibodies afterward.
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I was just starting to feel this confidence (been vaccinated for a couple months and 15 year old fully protected as of last week), until the Delta variant took over. Iām a worrier. Sigh, it was great while it lasted.
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I didnāt see a noticeable difference in New England. VT and NH are mostly white, at least where we were, and, yes, very few masks, but it didnāt strike me that people who werenāt white had more masks. When we stopped near Springfield, MA, there was much more diversity and I donāt remember seeing many masks their either, at least where we stopped over. I also didnāt notice a difference in mask wearing at a very crowded rest stop in central Jersey where there was a great variety of skin colors.
I think Iām being particularly observant about mask wearing now because I feel like an oddball most of the time being a mask-wearer in places wear most others arenāt.
At home, where I am in SJ, thereās a mix among white people in the stores, and I almost think more young people are wearing masks than middle age or elderly people. Thatās an unscientific casual observation, but it has struck me.
When I see people out walking, I think itās much more likely for non-white people to wear masks, even if they are alone.
In stores here in metro Denver, the kids are still wearing masks as they arenāt vaccinated. Sometimes their parents are too. Almost all clerks are in stores, but not wait staff in restaurants or even the workers at the McDonaldās drive through.
We certainly see enough of them to make them ānot strange.ā