Allergic responses to COVID MRNA vaccine

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - A parent talked about why she enrolled her 5-year-old into a Nashville trial for COVID MRNA Vaccine.

Meredith Schnitzer is a labor and delivery nurse at St Thomas and knows how a COVID vaccine can change lives.

“Just seeing these moms come in, the ones who have the vaccine versus the ones who don’t, it’s generally a way better outcome for the ones whom do you have it,” Schnitzer said.

Seeing this efficacy firsthand made her decision easy when it came time to get vaccinated. It’s protection she’s researched for her two sons as well.

“I trust my pediatrician, and she said to get it,” Schnitzer said.

Her oldest son, Noah, is the only one currently eligible for a COVID vaccine at 5-years-old. Noah had a severe allergy to dairy and eggs as an infant, so she signed Noah up when Schnitzer found out about a new vaccine trial at Vanderbilt.

The study looks at the reaction to the M-RNA vaccine for children 5 to 18-years-old with allergies.

“I monitored him in a little diary,” Schnitzer said. “Temperature, side effects, and then we found out four or five days later that it was just a placebo.”

Noah gets his shots under the care of hospital staff and is monitored constantly by nurses following the shot. Schnitzer said he’s had no side effects so far, even after getting his first vaccine following the placebo.

“I was expecting him to be a little sick or under the weather, but he wasn’t at all,” Schnitzer said.

Schnitzer said it is encouraging for her and should be for other parents who may be on the fence about vaccinating their children.

“We’ve had such a great result with this for my son, and I know a few of his other classmates have had it, and they’ve all had great results,” Schnitzer said. “If he can help just one kid or one person from contracting COVID, it’s worth it to us.”

Noah will be receiving his second vaccine on Thursday.

Six children are enrolled in this study, and all six now have at least one dose of the vaccine. Unfortunately, no results can be released just yet. This trial will happen over the next year.

“The results in children and experience with the vaccine outside the study have been very encouraging overall with no big signals of serious allergies,” the doctor leading this study told News4.

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