Experts Urge Parents to Vaccinate Children

“My family is fully vaccinated. The only person I was missing was my 11-year-old. She’ll be fully immunized by the end of the month,” said Flor Rivera, a mother from Long Island. Rivera and her husband caught COVID around the start of the pandemic and were unable to care for their children, something she never wants to happen again. “I don’t want any of them to go through what we did while battling COVID.” 

Health experts and the White House are urging parents to vaccinate their children to protect them from COVID-19.  They believe it will keep kids healthy and reduce school absences. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, at the beginning of November children accounted for 27 percent of all reported COVID cases. 

Vanessa Santana, a mother of two, said she is staying at home with her newborn baby for as long as she can. “My oldest son is ten years old, and he has already received his first dose and is attending school in person,” she said. She feels happy that her son’s charter school is doing everything possible to maintain social distance and cleanliness. With a new baby at home, she feels that she can’t afford to jeopardize her family’s health and has made certain that only people who are vaccinated come near her family. 

Pfizer and BioNTech conducted small research studies to show their vaccines provide strong rates of protection against COVID-19 for children aged five to eleven. According to Pfizer’s statistics, they used a third of the adult dosage for children’s vaccinations and they were 90.7 percent effective. 

Arlin Acevedo, a mother of four, says she and her older children, aged 15 to 21, have been vaccinated, but she is not vaccinating her 9-year-old yet. “We all suffered uncomfortable side effects from the vaccine, so we remained home from work and school,” Arlin said. “For my 9-year-old, I’m looking for a nice gap between school days so she may stay at home and recover.” 

COVID vaccinations can cause common side effects such as a sore arm, fever, or headaches.  But experts urge everyone who can, should get the vaccination as soon as possible. “With the weather cooling down, festivities returning indoors, and the holidays just around the corner, there is a greater chance of developing the disease,” said Dr. Ibuknoluwa Kalu, a pediatrician and infectious disease specialist at Duke University. “Gathering in a fully vaccinated setting is safer than not.”