Kids under 12 could soon get Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine — 5 key questions parents should ask

That may pave the best way for some 28 million American youngsters to get vaccinated with their dad and mom’ or guardians’ consent.

Simply over 1 / 4 of fogeys (27%) with children ages 5 to 12 say they’ll get their baby vaccinated as quickly as doable, based on survey information from the Kaiser Household Basis, a nonprofit well being care think-tank.

“This is likely one of the finest methods to guard your baby and household from COVID-19,” stated Dr. Nipunie Rajapakse, a pediatric infectious illness specialist with the Mayo Clinic Kids’s Heart.

But a 3rd of fogeys are taking the “wait and see” strategy and three-in-ten stated they positively wouldn’t get their baby vaccinated.

Kids could not be capable to get vaccinated for an additional couple of weeks, however within the meantime, you may need some questions concerning the vaccine’s unwanted effects, what to anticipate and the place you will get it.

Listed below are some solutions to these urgent questions:

1. The place will vaccines for teenagers ages 5 to 11 be administered?

For probably the most half, your baby ought to be capable to get vaccinated on the identical locations individuals 12 and over have been getting vaccinated. However in contrast to the preliminary vaccine rollouts, you shouldn’t have any bother getting an appointment, the White Home stated forward of the FDA advisory panel’s conferences.

As an example, the nationwide pharmacy chain CVS
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confirmed with MarketWatch that they’ll be administering vaccines for kids.

Walgreens
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stated it’s ready for “official steerage and timing for the potential approval of COVID-19 vaccinations for kids aged 5-11 and can share extra info as soon as that’s obtainable.”

“Till ACIP offers steerage, COVID-19 vaccinations should not obtainable in our shops for kids beneath the age of 12,” a spokeswoman advised MarketWatch.

And greater than 25,000 pediatricians and primary-care suppliers have already signed on to manage COVID-19 vaccine photographs to children, based on a White Home temporary.

On prime of that, there can even be a whole bunch of school- and community-based clinics in addition to youngsters’s hospitals that might be administering vaccines.

2. How do COVID-19 vaccines for youthful youngsters differ from these being given to individuals 12 and up?

Kids might be receiving Pfizer doses which might be one-third the dose used for teenagers and adults.

However simply as with teenagers and adults, they’ll have to attend three weeks to obtain their second doses and a further two weeks to get practically 91% safety towards symptomatic an infection, based on a Pfizer study of greater than 2,000 elementary-school-age youngsters.

3. What are frequent unwanted effects when youthful children get COVID-19 vaccines?

The unwanted effects your baby may expertise after their first dose may embrace: arm ache/soreness, fatigue, headache, muscle aches and fever, based on Pfizer’s research.

“These signs are usually short-lived (final 1 to three days) and resolve on their very own with none long-term impacts,” Rajapakse advised MarketWatch.

“Uncomfortable side effects can happen extra generally after the second dose of the vaccine as a consequence of a stronger immune-system response,” she added. “If dad and mom have issues a couple of symptom their baby is experiencing after vaccination they need to search the recommendation of their major care supplier to seek out out whether it is an anticipated aspect impact or not.”

Importantly, “most kids won’t have signs extreme sufficient that they should miss faculty,” she stated. Youngsters can take over-the-counter medicines like Tylenol or ibuprofen to deal with “bothersome” signs, Rajapakse added.

Some two-thirds of fogeys are involved “the vaccine could negatively influence their baby’s fertility sooner or later, regardless of the CDC stating there isn’t a proof that the COVID-19 vaccines trigger fertility issues,” based on the KFF report.

4. Can children get a flu shot at or across the identical time as their COVID-19 vaccine shot?

Primarily based on “the perfect obtainable information proper now,” there’s no drawback with a baby receiving a flu shot and a COVID-19 shot throughout the identical journey to the physician’s workplace, Dr. Adam Ratner, chief of the pediatric infectious illnesses division at New York College Grossman College of Medication’s Hassenfeld Kids’s Hospital, told MarketWatch.

In actual fact, “you will get them on the identical time,” Ratner stated. “There’s no purpose to assume there could be interference between the 2 of them,” he added.

5. Will children nonetheless must put on masks at college as soon as they’re absolutely vaccinated?

“Kids ought to proceed to put on masks after they’re absolutely vaccinated till we see the degrees of virus circulation locally lower considerably,” Rajapakse advised MarketWatch.

“Mother and father ought to proceed to observe the steerage of the CDC and their native public well being models as suggestions relating to masking for vaccinated people could change if ranges of virus circulation lower considerably.”