Duke research shows COVID-19 antibodies in children lasts for months

The Food and Drug Administration said that children as young as five could be vaccinated against coronavirus sometime in the winter.

Posted 6:23 p.m. Jul 16, 2021 — Updated 9:54 p.m. Jul 16, 2021

Sarah Krueger

, WRAL Durham reporter & Maggie Brown, WRAL multiplatform producer

DURHAM, N.C. — The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that children as young as 5 could be vaccinated against coronavirus sometime this winter. This announcement comes right before children across the country are headed back to school.

Two studies are in progress, one by Moderna and another by Pfizer, are looking into the vaccine in children as young as 6 months old. Officials say they expect that their vaccine could be approved for 5- to 11- year-olds sometime in the fall. Researchers are looking into how many doses of the vaccine children would need.

COVID cases spike just as kids prepare to head back to school

Data from the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the majority of coronavirus cases in all 50 states are among the unvaccinated. Particularly, the new deadly Delta variant is responsible for spreading rapidly among those without their shot.

Doctors across the country are seeing COVID-19 patients that are younger and sicker than this time last year. Health officials continue to say that recent cases and deaths from the new variant are entirely preventable.

A vaccine expert told CNN on Wednesday that children will likely pay the price for adults in the U.S. not getting vaccinated. The virus will only continue to replicate and spread if adults don't get their shot, said Dr. Peter Hotez, vaccinologist and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.

The good news: Antibodies last in children, death unlikely

Researchers at Duke University found that kids who had mild or asymptomatic COVID-19 have strong antibodies months later.

Antibodies were detected in the majority of the children in the study four months after infection. Children's antibody response could be stronger than adults, the study suggests. This finding will have implications on vaccine research in children, Moody said.

"It definitely helps us to know that kids are not making a response that just disappears," he said. "That has a lot of implications for vaccine response, school return, all of the things that we are interested in for our children."

The study shows that children who were exposed to COVID but didn't show any symptoms have strong protection against the virus.

Another study published on Thursday shows that death among children and young adults from coronavirus is more unlikely than previously thought. However, the study did not look into long-term effects of coronavirus in children.

An analysis of more than 3,000 deaths in children between March 2020 and February 2021 in England found that 25 were caused by coronavirus. That's 2 for every million children, the study says.

COVID vaccine for kids under 12 may be months away: FDA official

David Parker, who lives in Durham, is a father to two girls — 8 and10.

"We can’t wait. We’re very excited about it," he said. "We can’t wait until the FDA approves it for the little ones, too"

His two daughters, Elise and Ruby, are also excited to get their shot.

Ruby, 10, said she wants to get her vaccine because "it would help out the community."

"I think about it a lot, because it would open me up to going more places and seeing more people," she said. "I'm really social and COVID-19 has made me get depression which was really hard for me."

Summer camp vaccine spike

Several states are seeing a surge in coronavirus cases reported at summer camps. Mostly, Christian youth camps are to blame for the spike. In Texas, health officials reported more than 130 teenagers and adults tested positive for the virus in relation to Clear Creek Community Church.

In Illinois, 85 teens and adults tested positive after going to a summer camp, and one young adult was hospitalized.

Officials say that this data could give the U.S. insight into what the school year could look like if not enough people get vaccinated.

Vaccine for children will take time

The FDA wants to get shots into children's arms as soon as possible. But officials are prioritizing safety, which could impact the time it will take to get the vaccines distributed.

FDA grants priority review to Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine; agency official says approval decision expected within two months

"I understand parents' concern in wanting their children to get vaccinated, but we have to make sure we're doing the best and safest thing for children," Dr. Chip Walter, a pediatrician at Duke University and an investigator for the Pfizer trials, told CNN.

Moody said that vaccine trials for children are taking much longer than the previous trials for adults.

"One of the things to remember about the earlier adult trials is that the case rates in the U.S. were so high, at that point, it was really easy to see a signal," he said. "Right now we have lower transmission rates which means in order to see the signal that you want to show that vaccines are effective, you do have to likely run the studies a little bit longer."

Officials are also looking out for a specific effect of the virus called immune enhancement, which could make a child's COVID infection worse.

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