Covid vaccines for kids |
It is shocking and sad that the topic of vaccinations has become such a divisive issue. I remember my mom telling me about how every parent she knew couldn’t wait to get in line to get their kids protected from polio and measles as soon as the immunizations became available. They saw firsthand how destructive these diseases could be. Vaccines save lives. Unfortunately for everyone, there is so much misinformation making the rounds. Disinformation is meant to cause harm. Misinformation is generally not malicious, it just isn’t based in fact. It ends up causing plenty of harm in its own way. Please keep in mind, reasonable people really are on the same page. We all want our children to be safe and healthy. We also would like this pandemic to be in our rear view mirror sooner than later. Regardless of your stance on this topic, there should be absolutely no shame in asking questions. I want you to feel comfortable with the decisions you make regarding vaccination. Here is the essential thing. Please find a source (not your aunt’s gardener who gets most of his info from his cousin’s facebook posts). Your pediatrician is often an excellent source. Doing your own ‘research’ if it is not based on reputable data, can take you down a costly and potentially harmful rabbit hole. I have been trying to gather as much data as I can on this topic and one of the wisest statements I have heard so far was from Dr. Eric Ball, during a webinar hosted by the CDPH His point was, the choice you have is simple. Would you rather have your child get immunized or have them get the covid virus? The data speaks for itself. The Virus Kids do get covid. They might not all get terribly ill, thank goodness, but at the time that I am writing this, children 0-17 represent 17% of all cases nationwide. 6.4 million have tested positive (that is likely vastly under reported). 60,000 have been hospitalized and 600 have died. If you look at the top ten causes of death for children 5-11 during the past year, Covid-19 comes in number 8. And 5,200 have been hospitalized with multi system inflammatory disease (MIS). We are still learning about long term complications in patients. The impacts from the virus are continuing to show up weeks to months after the infection. Of course not all of them are as serious as the MIS, but pediatricians are seeing kids with what they are referring to as long covid. For these unfortunate patients, insomnia, fatigue, muscle pain and persistent cold-like symptoms are common. Some of these are not showing up for months after the initial virus. Frankly I am more concerned about protecting kids from potential long covid, than I am worried about the initial infections. Kids also serve as a vector. Not only can they spread covid to family members who might not fare quite as well, but the more ‘vectors’ the virus has access to, the greater the possibility that it can mutate into an even more terrible form. Immunity from the illness is not as protective as the immunity you get from the vaccine. Think of it like this, when kids are getting the flu vaccine for the first time, they need to get a series of two shots. The first one is a start, but doesn’t protect. The second one is what teaches the body to recognize and protect. Having had the illness is like having had the first flu shot. The vaccine First of all, all science to date has shown that the vaccine is safe. Billions of doses have been given. Kids' immune systems are indeed amazing. They are able to respond to a smaller dose than adults. The trials showed that they only require ⅓ of the dose that the older folks were getting. The schedule is similar to that of the adult series with a 3 week interval in between the shots. Certainly many people have several days of side effects. These might include aches, fevers and even some swollen glands, but once those fade, there haven’t been reports of any long term issues. Poor Sandy felt like he was hit by a truck for 2 days. I rubbed arnica all over my arm and was mostly fine after 24 hours. In any case we both said,” bring it on! Hooray that our immune systems are working.” Some folks have a much easier time than others. Either way I would suggest carving out some down time the day after the shot just to be on the safe side. Check out Dr. Teds section below for the scientific explanation about those side effects. Having a day or two of feeling yucky is much better than having actual covid. Even mild cases of the virus can lead to long term issues that we are just learning how to manage. The vaccine is not actually new. It has been in the works for more than 20 years. I am going to address a few of the common concerns that you may have read about. Myocarditis Post vaccination there have been 2 out of 100,000 cases reported. Aha...but guess what, there have been a reported 150 out of 100,000 cases of people who got myocarditis from having actual covid. It is nice to know that up until now there were NO cases in the 5-11 year old age range Fertility This is a non issue. There has been absolutely no documented impact on fertility. Oh yes , except for the well publicized case of Nicki Minaj's cousin’s friend’s enlarged testicles. Micro chips I hope none of my readers actually buy into this kind of misinformation, but just in case here is a list of some myths that have been dispelled It is safe for kids to get vaccinated even if they have already had covid. In the clinical trials, 9% of the children had previous covid infections. These kids actually ended up having milder side effects compared with those who had never been infected. Is the vaccine perfect? Of course not. There are plenty of breakthrough cases, but the numbers are clear that the hospitalizations and deaths are overwhelmingly higher for people who have not had both shots. Although the risk is not zero, the incidents of Long Covid appear to be significantly lower in people who have already had the series of at least two shots We don’t always love our options. If you are a parent then you are familiar with this. Your toddler might insist on wearing their favorite shirt that is in the laundry because the dog peed on it. “I am sorry”, you tell them. That is not one of your choices. We don’t have time to wash it. You can choose between shirt A and shirt B.. Sometimes our choices suck. But that is the world we are living in. Here they are again. I will add a third option: Get Covid Get vaccinated Stay in a complete bubble Unfortunately opting to wait and watch to see how things are going is essentially akin to picking door number 1. If I had a child in the 5-11 range. I would be getting them the shot at the earliest possibility, especially with the holiday season right around the corner. Dr. Ted’s Science Those side effects can be celebrated. Side effects from shots are a hard thing to watch. All of a sudden, your child spends a day feeling sleepy, feverish, or in pain, and "you did this to them" is all you can sometimes think about. But I put a positive spin on this phenomenon. When the body’s immune system is active and learning, it creates antibodies, along with a number of other inflammatory signals. These signals are what cause us to feel symptoms. We see this mirrored in the COVID-19 research: people with asymptomatic disease are more likely to make little or no immunity to the virus, whereas antibody levels are much higher for those with significant symptoms. So the day or feverishness after a shot could bring a sigh of relief: the body is stating the message was received. This doesn’t mean you should worry if your child doesn’t have symptoms or behave differently the day after a shot, they might just have a different experience of those feelings. But those short-lived symptoms do not leave lasting damage, only lasting protection! |
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