By Patricia Guadalupe -
NBC News
For Dr. Alejandro Cané, his role in helping COVID-19 vaccines become a reality for adults and now for children is not only a professional achievement, but also a personal one.
“As a father of four children with different ages, from 11 to 18 years old, I can say that the youngest still wonders why he is not vaccinated,” he recently told NBC News, sister network of Noticias Telemundo, “and now he will be vaccinated soon. ”.
Cané is North America chief of medical and scientific affairs for Pfizer's vaccine division, and is one of a group of Latinos who have played key roles at the pharmaceutical company in vaccine development and outreach. for the community.
Alejandro CanéPfizer
This includes a lower dose of the vaccine that has just been made available to children ages 5 to 11.
The pandemic has hit the Latino community especially hard, and according to data from Salud América !, a non-profit organization in defense of health equity,
Latinos lead the 0-24 age group in terms of deaths for COVID-19: 35% compared to 25% of black people and 32.3% of non-Hispanic whites.
[These are the reasons why many parents who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 do not want their children to do so yet]
About 4,500 children participated in 90 clinical trials to test the safety and efficacy of the vaccine, and of those, 21% were Latino, according to Pfizer.
The researchers did not report any adverse reactions, including no cases of severe allergic reactions, blood clots, myocarditis, or anaphylaxis.
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"It demonstrated the same level of efficacy and safety that we have seen in adults and we did the same research," said Cané, a native of Argentina.
"All the data we have generated supports the use of this vaccine and puts us closer to finally exiting the pandemic."
Dr. Alejandra Gurtman, vice president of vaccine research and development at Pfizer and also originally from Argentina, has been working on vaccine development for 16 years.
An infectious disease expert with more than three decades of experience in the field, she decided to change her focus to work on prevention after many years of caring for sick patients.
Alejandra Gurtman Pfizer
“We know that the minority population has been affected much more than any other community, and the same happens with children.
There are a disproportionate number of children with COVID-19 who belong to minorities, including Latinos, ”he said.
Protect children and their families
"The risk of COVID-19 for children is serious: it can be a mild illness in a high percentage of children, but it can be very serious in others," said Dr. Luis Jodar, medical director of Pfizer's vaccines division. .
Vaccinating children has broader benefits, Jodar added, that go beyond the protection offered by vaccines.
[Why do children need the COVID-19 vaccine?]
"There has been a worsening of the emotional and health conditions of many children during the pandemic," he
said.
These include mass school closings, decreased physical activity and its effects on health, including obesity, and lack of routine health care visits for children, including reduced appointments for vaccines. .
Luis JodarPfizer
Being able to reverse many of these difficulties by immunizing children, he said, "makes you realize the benefits of vaccination."
Researchers at the
Kaiser Family
Foundation
found that a large number of COVID-19 infections in the wider community could be prevented by vaccinating more children.
Vaccinating as many as possible will also reduce transmission from children to other vulnerable adults and children, Jodar stressed.
Boost equity
"Vaccines are probably the health intervention tool that most guarantees equity,"
said Jodar, a Spaniard who has worked in vaccine development for 25 years, including in developing countries and Latin America.
"We had a clear intention to include different ethnicities in all of our clinical trials."
Nanette Cocero, a native of Puerto Rico and world president of Pfizer's vaccines division, has been with the company for 20 years and has focused on issues related to vaccine access and equity.
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"A great motivation for me working in this industry is the role we can play in improving the health of communities that have too often lagged behind in public health efforts," he said.
"We know that communities of color have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19."
Cocero leads a group of more than 1,500 people that make up the vaccines business unit.
"This has included the critical responsibility to lead the talks with governments
in order to secure supply agreements that allow access to the vaccine worldwide," he said.
Nannette Cocero Pfizer
In the United States, the COVID-19 Vaccine Equity and Education Project, which Pfizer supports, includes more than 200 provider and patient advocacy organizations that focus on education, equity, and access to vaccines.
Although there are still problems with access to vaccines around the world, Cocero said that
Pfizer has committed to providing 2 billion doses to low- and middle-income countries this year and next.
Although the vaccine for ages 5 to 11 is now available, clinical trials for younger children continue.
Jodar said they expect data for ages 2 to 5 years later this year, and for ages 6 months to 2 during the first quarter of next year.
[
This young man regrets not getting vaccinated: he fell ill with COVID-19 and needed a double life-threatening lung transplant
]
Gurtman said parents should not hesitate to vaccinate their children.
“I have worked in a company that has been developing vaccines for more than 100 years, so we know how to do it.
We have not skimped on anything ”, he assured.
"All the pieces were there to really move us as fast as we could: the development of the Pfizer vaccine expertise, the partnership with BioNTech and the fact that we were in a pandemic and the need was so great."
"It has been a privilege"
In addition to reassuring the public about vaccine safety, doctors and business people reflected on being a part of history.
"As a member of the Latino community, I feel extraordinarily privileged," said Jodar, "part of the team that has made these vaccines widely available, not just in the United States but around the world."
CDC advisers recommended Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine in the United States.
The doses are already applied in other countries such as Ecuador in Latin America.Agency Press South / Getty Images
"I am very proud to be part of the team that medically changed the way the pandemic evolved," said Cané, "of how
people could trust science to win the battle against the disease."
Gurtman described his work helping develop the vaccine as one of the most important moments in his professional life.
"It has been a privilege to be so involved from the beginning and with all age groups," she said.
“It is difficult to explain in words.
Is incredible".