ORLANDO, Fla. – Dr. Michael Keating and Dr. Fatima Levent with AdventHealth for Children explained the importance of getting kids the COVID-19 vaccine.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed off on giving Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to children as young as 5 years old and the roll out is expected to kick into high gear in the next couple of days.
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“It is actually 1/3 of the adult dose and this comes from their safety data, and it is 1/3 of the dose because they have seen in this age group it works very well,” Levent explained.
Levent spoke about mild side effects and explained they are very similar to what they saw with adults and older children who got vaccinated, effects like arm pain and headaches being the most common.
“It sounds like from the data that we have seen, it’s very effective. It’s 91% effective and it has milder side effects,” she said.
And when it comes to vaccine hesitancy, Keating encouraged parents to at least consider the idea of getting their children vaccinated and he stressed that we have not reached herd immunity just yet.
“If you’re in that middle group, watch and see your friends, see how the kiddies do and give it very strong consideration to go ahead and get your children vaccinated,” Keating said.
Keating said the hospital should be placing orders for the doses next week, though they are still ironing out distribution plans.