CINCINNATI — The Vaccine Research Center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center is one of five clinics looking to find out.

This “mix-and-match” trial, funded through the National Institutes of Health, is looking into the safety and effectiveness of getting one manufacturer's COVID-19 vaccine for the first round and then getting another manufacturer's vaccine for a second shot or possible booster.

"We're mixing things up, we're matching things and allowing us to be able to see, 'Does that change our immune response? Does it change our safety profile?' So we have the information,” said Vaccine Research Center director Robert Frenck.

The trial will look at various combinations, like two doses of Moderna and then a third dose of Pfizer, or a dose of Johnson & Johnson followed by a dose of Pfizer.

Frenck said he’s hopeful that mixing manufacturers will pan out, but he's waiting for the science to back up his hypothesis.

"As doctors, we think that's going to be OK, but as scientists we want to know that that's OK,” he said. "In a real-world setting, if you go into Kroger today and you got a Moderna vaccine, and you go to Walgreens and you got Pfizer, and some other pharmacy says, 'What did you get last time?' And you said, 'I don't know. I just got a vaccine.'"

More importantly than planning for future boosters, he said the main focus right now should be on people getting their initial vaccines.

"The far more important thing is to get the other 50 to 60% of the people who haven't had their primary series," he said, referring to the regimen of two shots necessary for the recipient to achieve the highest level of immunity.

At Mullaney’s Pharmacy in Pleasant Ridge, director of operations Troy Stinson is seeing an uptick in appointments.

"The last week or two, we're really having a lot of calls for it, people wanting to schedule appointments again,” Stinson said. "A lot of people recently have been getting the J&J because it's the one-time."

So far he hasn’t come across any questions or confusion about mixing the vaccines, but he does have advice for what to do when the time for boosters or a second shot comes up.

"Hold on to the card, bring it back in,” Stinson said. “And if you got the first one with us, it's in the system. And, honestly, we can search if you got it anywhere."

Right now the “mix-and-match” research is still in the clinical trial phase. The World Health Organization is advising people to stick to one manufacturer until more information is available.

CINCINNATI — If the CDC approves Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 12-15, shots could be available for kids in Cincinnati and all across Ohio on Thursday.

The Food and Drug Administration gave emergency use authorization on Monday to allow the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in teens as young as 12. The next step is expected Wednesday, when the CDC votes on whether to recommend the Pfizer vaccine for the 12-to-15 age group.

“We are ready, as soon as we get final approval, we’ve got clinics Wednesday evening, Thursday evening at our base clinic and at (the Liberty campus) and on Saturday and we are ready to go,” said Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center chief of staff Dr. Patty Manning.

Children’s Hospital has already been hosting community clinics to vaccinate 16 and 17-year-olds, and hospital leaders say they expect the transition to the younger ages to be seamless.

“The Ohio Department of health has been working very closely with the hospitals and with... pediatric offices to try to channel the vaccine that would be more advantageous for children, the Pfizer vaccine,” said Dr. Robert Frenck, director of the Gamble Vaccine Research Center at Children's Hospital.

The FDA declared the Pfizer vaccine is safe and offers strong protection for younger teens based on testing of more than 2,000 U.S. volunteers ages 12 to 15. The agency noted there were no cases of COVID-19 among fully vaccinated adolescents compared with 16 among kids given dummy shots. Researchers found the participants also developed higher levels of virus-fighting antibodies than earlier studies measured in young adults.

The Tri-State has been on the front lines of the effort to make the vaccine available for young teens. Florence pediatrician Dr. Amanda Dropic, who entered her children in a Pfizer clinical trial at Children's Hospital, said her family felt like it was their duty to get involved.

"As a parent it just makes me feel safer," Dropic said. "As a pediatrician, for some of my kids who are medically fragile, the sooner they can get the vaccine the better off. I'll feel safer for them."

Pediatricians, community clinics and even school systems like Mason City Schools will likely be the first to facilitate the vaccine for the 12-to-15 age group.

"I think getting vaccine to primary care clinics where families are used to going, where they have trusted care providers in those sites, is the next step,” Manning said. “And then Dr. Frenck and his team have done a great job at looking at locations such as Findlay Market, to be in the community so people don't have to travel as far. We really need to work on bringing the vaccine to where people are to address equity.”

In an email to parents on May 7, Mason Middle School said in part: “Once the FDA authorizes allowing the Pfizer shots to be given to 12 to 15 year olds and the CDC also signs off, families with 12 to 15 year old children will be able to sign their kids up for the Warren County Health Department vaccine clinics that are being held in the MMS Arena.”

Children's Hospital will be offering Pfizer vaccine at a clinic at Findlay Market starting Saturday starting at 10 a.m. There is also a portal to request a vaccine appointment on the Children’s Hospital website.

Adolescents between 12 and 15 will receive the Pfizer two-dose COVID-19 vaccine the same way those 16 and older do now; the shots will be given three weeks apart with the same dosage.

In a news release Monday, the FDA said the study data included more than 2,200 participants ages 12 to 15. Common side effects were similar to adults, with pain at the injection site, tiredness, headache, chills, muscle pain, fever and joint pain.

CINCINNATI -- At first, it seemed like 4-year-old Elijah Peacock had caught a cold. But his symptoms morphed into something much more serious.

"I never understood lethargia till I saw it in my son," Elijah's mom, Alex Voland, said. "We went to stand him up, and he collapsed."

The illness left Elijah with lower limb paralysis. Now he's in a wheelchair.

Doctors at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center said Elijah's symptoms match acute flaccid myelitis, though his case has not been confirmed as that condition. 

Watch doctors discuss the case in the video player below:

 

According to the CDC, acute flaccid myelitis is "a rare but serious condition" that affects spinal cord gray matter and causes muscles and reflexes to weaken. 

CDC officials said they started seeing an increase in cases in 2014. There have been 219 reports and 80 confirmed cases of the condition in the U.S. this year, as of Nov. 2. Those cases are spread across 25 states. 

In Ohio, there have been five confirmed cases this year, compared to just two in 2017 and two in 2016. The 2017 cases were confirmed in Butler and Hamilton counties, and one of the 2016 confirmed cases was in Adams County.

Most of the patients with acute flaccid myelitis are children, according to the CDC.

Symptoms of acute flaccid myelitis include facial droop/weakness, difficulty moving eyes, drooping eyelids and difficulty swallowing or slurred speech, according to the CDC. 

Doctors don't believe acute flaccid myelitis is contagious, according to Children's Hospital officials. However, the exact cause of the disease — likely a virus — has not been determined. 

Check back for more information.