According to a survey published last week by the Kaiser Family Foundation, only about one-in-four parents will vaccinate their 5-12 year old ‘right away’ when available, which in all likelihood will be within the next two weeks.
The hesitancy is understandable.
Are the vaccines safe? Are they effective? Is vaccinating children against COVID even needed?
As a local pediatrician, it is my responsibility to make sure the recommendations I offer will better the health and wellness of Fort Wayne’s children.
But I’m also a dad. So here’s why I’m one of the 25% of parents that will be first-in-line vaccinating his favorite patients – my 6 and 9 year old children.
I am confident this vaccine is safe.
I say this both from looking at the safety data from the trials involving children in this age group, and also my experience and knowledge from vaccinating children in my 10 years as a pediatrician. The short-term side effects, similar to the other vaccines we give and trust, are minor and well tolerated. Thankfully, there were zero serious reactions involving children.
But what about the long-term impacts? Being a new vaccine, parents point out that I can’t possibly know how the vaccine will impact children 1, 5 or 20 years from now.
This is where I draw from my medical training, understanding how this shot (all vaccines), are designed to work in the body. Unlike most medicines, which linger in the body for days or weeks, the ingredients in vaccines are quickly eliminated, leaving behind the instructions that help the body’s immune system recognize and fight the virus that causes disease. I’ve never witnessed a vaccine reaction or side effect years after giving a vaccine. The coronavirus-19 vaccine will be no different.
I’ll mention that myocarditis, an extremely rare inflammatory condition of the heart observed in the vaccinated older children and adults, is of concern. However, I point out that children are at much greater risk getting a more dangerous myocarditis from the virus itself. And at this this point in the pandemics, only two things are certain: children will either get vaccinated or get COVID.
The effectiveness of the vaccine is very promising, with data showing that COVID-19 symptoms were prevented in over 90% of kids between ages 5-11 who received the vaccine.
The third question for me is the most compelling. Why do kids need the vaccine in the first place?
Fortunately, compared to adults, most children who get the infection, get over it with supportive care and good old vitamin T (‘Time’). But not for all. Since COVID-19 has killed over 90 kids, and hospitalized many more, there is no way I would qualify it as a ‘benign’ disease. As AAP president Dr. Lee Savio Beers puts it, “There is simply not an acceptable number of child deaths when such effective and safe preventable treatments are available.” Plus, while adults continue to die, or at best fill up hospital beds and emergency resources, we can’t allow children to continue spreading the infection in the community.
And there’s this: I’m tired of my kids getting tested, quarantined, and yes, wearing masks. These important measures for mitigating disease spread, and keeping our schools open, suddenly become much less important if our kids, mine and yours, are vaccinated.
In the upcoming weeks, parents will have an important opportunity to safely protect their children from coronavirus-19. I may be representing only 25% of parents, but for this Dad and pediatrician, once the shot becomes available for my children, my kids will be first in line.
