TAMPA, Fla. — The Food and Drug Administration on Monday expanded emergency use authorization for Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine to kids ages 12-15.
The number one question now: Is the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine safe, and do pediatricians recommend it?
Dr. Christina Canody is the medical director of the pediatric service line for BayCare.
"So my response to that is that we have experience now with millions of doses that have been given out. And I know it's preliminary data that we have out. But knowing that this is a pandemic, and that we're seeing more infections and kids, more severe infections with the new strains that are out there. This is one conduit to kids getting back to living their lives normally, and not being scared of the infections, as well as the infection that continue to go throughout our world," she said.
Can my children get other shots at the same time?
Dr. Cindy Wood White is a pediatrician with Pediatric Health Care Alliance. The group will vaccinating children 12 years and older each Saturday beginning May 22.
“Because it is a dead virus. It's not a live vaccine. You can get other vaccines right along with the COVID vaccine, and that's going to help a lot because a lot of the 12 year old that are coming in, do have scheduled vaccines and they're trying to get their tetanus booster and the COVID vaccine before they go away to camp this summer. So that just also came out this week. And that's wonderful news,” she said.
What about kids with allergies?
Dr. Rachel Dawkins is the medical director of the Pediatric and Adolescent clinic in the Johns Hopkins All Children’s Department of Pediatric medicine.
"The guidance from the CDC says if the child is not allergic to a vaccine component, just like any other vaccine, that they're safe to get on the Pfizer vaccine, of course, we're still doing once the vaccine is given watching the child for any reaction for 15 to 30 minutes after the vaccine," she said.
Kids and vaccines: A Sharper Insight
The Pfizer vaccine is now available for Americans ages 12 and older, but there are a lot of kids still vulnerable to COVID-19. They can't get the shot.
Dr. Canody says in Florida about 15 percent of COVID-19 cases reported in kids 14 and younger have come up in the last six to eight weeks. That’s a higher rate than cases among all ages.
With cases can come complications. Doctors are seeing more pediatric patients being hospitalized, and Canody says, for the first time, 5 percent of all hospitalizations are kids.
“We're seeing more severe infections, more cases of MIS-C and we've most recently had two patients actually referred for heart transplant because of complications from MIS-C,” she said.
10 Tampa Bay’s Courtney Robinson asked what parents, who are fully vaccinated, should do as new guidelines from the CDC say masks aren’t needed in most places for those who have received full vaccines.
“Well, in general, if we are in enclosed spaces, with non-family members, we should still wear masks, simply because the strains that are predominant now are more virulent, and even people who have been vaccinated can still test positive and spread those strains. And additionally, you have to protect the family members who can't be vaccinated and your younger children who aren't eligible for the vaccine,” she said.
Masks and social distancing have also kept our children protected from other viruses like RSV and the common cold.
The medical director for the pediatric clinic at Johns Hopkins All Children's says they're seeing more kids with typical viruses as more people get back to pre-pandemic routines. She says they expect to see more kids also coming in with COVID.
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