Advance Public Remarks by Protect their Future Cofounder Fatima Khan 

at Review Meeting for Vaccines for Children Under 5

June 15, 2022– Protect Their Future looks forward to the review by the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee of vaccines for children under 5.  Given the positive data for two doses of Moderna, and a three dose regimen for Pfizer, we are hopeful that the committee will vote to authorize both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines for children under 5.  Families have endured multiple delays in the approval process and are eager to finally gain vaccine protection that all other age cohorts have access to.  Below are advance remarks by Protect Their Future Co-founder Fatima Khan that will be delivered during the public comment portion of the meeting.

Thank you for allowing me to speak today. My name is Fatima Khan and I am a mother to a 6 and 4 year old. I am also a cofounder of Protect Their Future, an entirely volunteer grassroots group of physicians, parents and activists advocating for health leaders to prioritize children, including allowing our youngest equitable access to safe COVID vaccines.  We receive no funding from any individual or corporation.

Our group is composed of thousands of families who accept that COVID can pose significant harm to children and that vaccines offer a strong layer of protection against not only infection, but also long term complications like MIS-C, long Covid, neurological effects and in worst cases, death. Based on all available data, we support emergency use authorization for both Moderna and Pfizer’s COVID vaccines.

Our public health leaders have left families of children under 5 behind, making any semblance of a balanced life difficult to achieve.  

As a cofounder of Protect Their Future, I hear from families across the country struggling to keep their children safe, while also balancing real life necessities such as work, school and other obligations.  Not a day goes by that I don’t hear of a parent lamenting that their child either contracted COVID or was exposed despite taking all reasonable precautions.  Each parent feels an overwhelming sense of failure and defeat because they weren’t able to keep their child protected until a vaccine was available for their age group.

We know that families of color and low income families have greatly suffered.  These are often the families who don’t have the choice to keep their children home, and who must make impossible decisions between protecting their loved ones and bringing food to their tables.  Delaying vaccines to our youngest only exacerbates these disparities.  

Almost eight months out from when children 5 and older could access vaccines, millions of children under five have been infected. Moreover, the majority of hospitalizations and deaths recorded in children under 5 occurred during the Omicron surge, a time when trials were meant to have already been completed in this age group.  Any more death and illness for our youngest and most vulnerable is unacceptable.  Every day of inaction leads to more suffering and damage. 

As others stated yesterday, Moderna was shown to not only meet trial criteria for the two dose regimen, but also had a higher efficacy rate against Omicron when compared to Pfizer's two dose series. It seems to be the case that Pfizer's efficacy improves significantly after a third dose, and it can be inferred that a third dose of Moderna, like boosters for other age groups, will yield even better results than the two dose regimen. Moderna also showed higher antibody levels after just 2 doses than Pfizer’s 3 dose series. Trial and real world data are proving Moderna may be offering superior protection. 

This is why it is critical to approve both vaccines today, so that parents have options and so that our children can be fully vaccinated before school. If they need additional doses later, that can be evaluated as needed. Children like my daughter, who will proudly join the ranks of junior kindergarten this fall, must have the same access the rest of their school-age peers have.  

We have waited too long and too many families have suffered already.  Please ensure that our children are protected with these highly safe and effective vaccines.

Thank you.

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About Protect Their Future:

Protect Their Future is a grassroots group of physicians, parents, and activists advocating on behalf of young children and patients to have access to COVID-19 vaccines as the pandemic rages on.  The organization is calling on health leaders to PUT KIDS FIRST in public health policies.  Follow us on Twitter at @ImmunizeUnder5s

 

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About Protect Their Future: 

We are a grassroots group of physicians, parents and activists advocating on behalf of our young children and patients to have access to COVID-19 vaccines as the pandemic rages on. As parents, we have waited patiently for our kids to be protected while the rest of the country seems to have put the pandemic behind them. Omicron is the most infectious of all variants to date and early reports are showing potential increased hospitalization in children under 5. With nearly 6,000 cases of MIS-C in children and 1,000 kids who have died of COVID-19 kids under 18, we need to do all we can as parents to protect our children. We currently have the data and science, but bureaucratic and procedural red tape is leaving young children unprotected. We need that to change. We need the FDA and regulatory agencies to PUT KIDS FIRST and allow parents the option to protect their children with a safe and effective vaccine.

Join us on Facebook at Protect Their Future.