Children and COVID-19: I couldn’t wait to get my children vaccinated against COVID-19. Here’s why.

My 7 year old child received the first dose of her Covid-19 vaccine Last week. There were a few cheers and a few tears (especially mine, of happiness). One year after the start of the deployment of the first vaccines to health workers, almost all groups are now eligible for a dose. (Trials for children aged six months to four years are still ongoing.)

After a long wait, COVID-19 vaccines are finally available for children aged 5 to 11 in the United States Pfizer mRNA vaccine received the green light by the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH, on November 2, following the recommendations of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), and before that, positive FDA reviews and their Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biologics (VRBPAC). The news couldn’t come soon enough for many parents.

To date, more than 6 million children in the United States have had a confirmed infection with COVID-19, and although the risk of serious infections and death is lower in children than in adults, more than 65,000 children were hospitalized by CDC data. At least 5,500 of them suffered from multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), and 48 deaths have been reported from this disease. Seven hundred children died of COVID-19 in the United States. Additionally, children can easily transmit the virus to others, which means that vaccination can protect not only the individual child but the community as a whole.

Waves of joy and relief

My youngest was looking forward to this day. Her older cousins ​​were able to get vaccinated during the summer; her brother and sister (both over 18) received the shots in early spring, while my partner and I did. He has therefore been the intruder in our immediate family for a long time and could not be more excited to receive his COVID-19 vaccines.

Many other children (and their guardians) have the same answer.

“My children have abstained from all in-person activities since March 2020 and were very happy to get the vaccine,” said Therese Chapple, Ph.D., epidemiologist and director of the local health service whose children aged 6 and 9 were able to get vaccinated shortly after the vaccine was authorized. “My 3 year old daughter was angry all day because she couldn’t get the vaccine. She wakes up every day asking if it’s her turn again.

“He was a champion” Eric Green, Ph.D., associate professor of global health practice at Duke University with a 7 and 3-year-old, said of his eldest, who received the vaccine recently. “Happy to have his lollipop and to do his part.” Fortunately, no side effects in the first 40 hours after posting.

Iowa pediatrician Amy shriver, MD, was able to get her 13-year-old immunized over the summer, but her 10-year-old was not yet eligible. “When the COVID-19 vaccine was approved for children 12 and older, I was thrilled,” she says. “When she received her first vaccine, I burst into tears of joy and relief.”

The relentless nature of pandemic parenthood, especially as a healthcare professional

For many of those on the front lines of the COVID-19 response or research, the past year and a half has been more than difficult. Jillian carmichael, Ph.D., is a virologist and mother of 2 children aged 7 and 4; living in Queens during the New York epidemic in 2020 in a 650 square foot apartment, her husband and children spent 100 days in Oklahoma with their family in 2020 while Dr Carmichael remained in the city to search.