After a very long wait, babies, toddlers and preschoolers can now get COVID-19 shots.
Many parents may feel relief, but some may also have questions. Dr. Jessica Ericson, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital in Hershey, Pa., offers some answers to help parents weigh the benefits of vaccinating kids who are 6 months of age and older.
Parents of kids under 5 will start getting messages today from the state health department, urging them to get their children vaccinated against COVID-19 before preschools are back in session.
Last week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that children between six months and 5 years receive either three doses of the Pfizer vaccine or two of the Moderna shot. Both contain the same ingredients as the shots given to adults and older kids, but in smaller doses.
DENVER — State health officials gave an update on COVID-19 in Colorado on Thursday morning, as case counts from the current wave decline statewide and the vaccine became available to children 6 months old to 5 years old.
Pharmacy team members are an integral part of vaccination efforts in the United States. According to the CDC, as of May 11, 2022, more than 248 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in pharmacies across the United States.1 This includes more than 8 million doses that pharmacists administered at long-term care facilities in 2021 to some of the most vulnerable patients in the nation. Pharmacists, student pharmacist interns, and pharmacy technicians, however, have given substantially more immunizations than those documented by the CDC for COVID-19 vaccines. They also administer seasonal influenza (flu) vaccines and routine adult and pediatric vaccines. Even before the pandemic, pharmacy team members played a major role in immunizations. During the 2020-2021 influenza season, more than 47 million doses of flu vaccine were administered to adults in US pharmacies, compared with 32 million doses administered in physician offices.2
DENVER – Colorado has ordered small amounts of an FDA-approved monkeypox vaccine to protect health care workers and people directly exposed to the virus as cases of the disease continue to slowly increase across the state.
Around 100 doses of the JYNNEOS vaccine have been ordered by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) to vaccinate intermediate and high-risk health care workers and people considered to be at higher risk for catching monkeypox, said Scott Bookman, director of the CDPHE’s Division of Disease Control and Public Health Response.
With so much information on the internet and various social media sites, and amid unprecedented political division, it can be hard to distinguish fact from fiction – especially regarding vaccines. You might feel frustrated navigating the constantly changing information that seems to come at us from multiple sources 24/7. You might be asking yourself: What are the risks vs. benefits of vaccines? What is the best way to keep my family safe and healthy? What information should I believe? We’re here to help untangle the truth from fiction and address some common vaccine concerns.
[Read more…]My daughter was only just starting to walk when the pandemic started. Now she’s almost four, and in all that time — growing up, going to school — she’s had no access to any protection from COVID-19 vaccines.
That changes this week. The White House has rolled out a plan for vaccinating the 19 million kids under 5 in the U.S., but if you’re just coming out of the holiday weekend trying to figure out where to find an appointment, you’re not alone.
On Friday, the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s coronavirus vaccines for children as young as 6 months. Shots should be available next week, which will provide some parents a long overdue tool to protect their children from covid.
It also will likely go unused by most American parents. This latter group, which will likely not seek out a coronavirus vaccine for their young children, deserves closer attention, not least of all because their hesitancy represents a change in how parents make health care decisions for their children. Rather than offering generic assurances that vaccines are important, those who hope to convince them to vaccinate their children will need to meet them where they are, respond to their actual concerns, and acknowledge the uncertainties alongside the benefits of these vaccines.
