BOISE, Idaho — On Wednesday, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention endorsed the use of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in children as young as 12.
According to a recent poll of parents by the Kaiser Family Foundation, only three in ten parents of children ages 12 to 15 were going to vaccinate their children as soon as it became available to them.
Dr. Naya Antink, the director of pediatrics at Saint Alphonsus Medical Group, said the COVID-19 vaccine offers kids a chance to return to a level of pre-pandemic normalcy.
"I think the youth of today have suffered tremendously with the covid pandemic, things being shut down, wearing masks at school not being able to attend school comfortably," she said, "and many of the patients I talk to in the 12-15 age range are very excited about the vaccine because they want to return to hang out with their friends safely, without a mask, indoors, doing all the activities they enjoyed doing before this pandemic."
She added that even parents who are excited about the vaccine are still worried about how safe and effective it is.
"I tell them according to the research and the publications that this is one of the most extensively studied and researched vaccines actually in the history of our vaccinations and so far all of the studies are showing and continuing to show that one, it is very safe and two, that it is even more efficacious than initially stated in terms of preventing the disease of COVID," she said.
Dr. Antink said she understands parents' need to weigh the risks and benefits of vaccines and their children.
"I have discussions every day with families about all vaccines, even vaccines that have been around for 10, 20 plus years and so far none of those vaccines have been related to any effect on a child's puberty and development and I believe that scientifically this vaccine is not related at all to those processes as well," she said.
When she has talked with parents in the past, she said she told them there's about a 2% chance of them getting very sick, compared to next to none with the vaccines.
"I highly recommend it to anyone who is eligible to get the vaccine," Dr. Antink said.
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