Should I Get My Child Vaccinated

Can I Get A Third Dose

Moderately to severely immunocompromised individuals aged 30 years and older should be immunized with a third dose of mRNA vaccine . Individuals in the 12 to 29 year age group may be offered the Moderna Spikevax vaccine . This recommendation is based on new evidence that shows the Moderna Spikevax vaccine may have a slightly higher vaccine effectiveness and may provide longer protection against infection and severe COVID-19 outcomes compared to the Pfizer-BioNTech Comirnaty vaccine. Third dose appointments should be scheduled at least 28 days after the last dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

Individuals who are moderately to severely immunocompromised may have a lower immune response to COVID-19 vaccines compared to the general population. Individuals with these conditions can have an increased immune response after receiving an additional dose of an mRNA vaccine. Moderately to severely immunocompromised includes people with the following conditions:

If you meet any of these criteria, you can book a third dose appointment at a Regional Health Authority clinic , or contact your physician or pharmacist.

Other groups who may be eligible for a third dose include individuals who received a mixed vaccine schedule and who must:

• Travel for employment outside of Canada
• Travel for a medical procedure outside of Canada or,
• Attend school outside of Canada.

Third dose appointments should be scheduled at least 28 days after the last dose of COVID-19 vaccine.

Pediatricians Explain Why Theyre Vaccinating Their Kids

With the COVID-19 vaccine now available for children ages 5-11, many parents and guardians are deciding if they want to get their kids vaccinated. Pediatrician parents are no different many providers with children in this age group are having similar conversations at home.

We asked two pediatricians, Brett Moore, DO, and Megan Clary, MD, to talk us through their decision-making process for their own kids.

Mandy Mccaslin Seattle Wa 6

Q: How much research has been done for the babies who were in utero when moms were vaccinated, or babies who were breastfeeding when moms are vaccinated? How protected are they since they can’t wear a mask and can’t be vaccinated themselves?

The CDC has summarized some of the more recent research, and I will refer to the data they’ve shared publicly as the source of information that may be helpful here, but there are also multiple published studies from 2021 that help to address the question. Specifically, when they look at mothers that had babies recently, mothers that were vaccinated or those that may have been unvaccinated but got an infection just by nature of having COVID spreading everywhere, they saw that those who were vaccinated were able to pass antibodies or pass protection onto the infant. And pass it in such a way that it was both in the blood, but also within the mouth and nose, so within the mucosa layer of the babies. And this is huge. This is great. Because if babies get exposed just inadvertently in the community, they have a layer of protection since they can’t mount their own protection. Some of those who were infected passed some antibodies as well, but it was slightly less than those that were vaccinated. So I think vaccines are safe and effective in pregnant women, and they were able to pass it on, which is hugely helpful.

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Why Children And Teens Should Get Vaccinated For Covid

There are approximately 28 million children between the ages of 5 and 11 years old in the United States, and there have been nearly 2 million cases of COVID-19 within this age group during the pandemic. COVID-19 can make children very sick and cause children to be hospitalized. In some situations, the complications from infection can lead to death.

Children are as likely to be infected with COVID-19 as adults and can

• Get very sick from COVID-19
• Have both short and long-term health complications from COVID-19
• Spread COVID-19 to others, including at home and school

As of mid-October 2021, children ages 5 through 11 years have experienced more than 8,300 COVID-19 related hospitalizations and nearly 100 deaths from COVID-19. In fact, COVID-19 ranks as one of the top 10 causes of death for children ages 5 through 11 years.

Children who get infected with COVID-19 can also develop serious complications like multisystem inflammatory syndrome a condition where different body parts become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs. Since the pandemic began, more than 2,300 cases of MIS-C have been reported in children ages 5 through 11 years. Children with underlying medical conditions are more at risk for severe illness from COVID-19 compared with children without underlying medical conditions.

Side Effects Of Vaccination

Most of the side effects of vaccination are mild and do not last long.

The most common side effects of vaccination include:

• the area where the needle goes in looking red, swollen and feeling a bit sore for 2 to 3 days
• babies or young children feeling a bit unwell or developing a high temperature for 1 or 2 days

Some children might also cry and be upset immediately after the injection. This is normal and they should feel better after a cuddle.

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Third Dose Existing Eligibility A Third Dose Of The Covid

• Transplant recipients
• Patients with hematological cancers on active treatment
• Recipients of an anti-CD20 agent
• Residents of Long-Term Care Homes , Retirement Homes , Elder Care Lodges, and elderly living in other congregate settings
• Those undergoing active treatment for solid tumors
• Those who are in receipt of chimeric antigen receptor -T-cell
• Those with moderate or severe primary immunodeficiency
• Stage 3 or advanced untreated HIV infection and those with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome and
• Those undergoing active treatment with the following categories of immunosuppressive therapies: anti-B cell therapies , high-dose systemic corticosteroids, alkylating agents, antimetabolites, or tumor-necrosis factor inhibitors and other biologic agents that are significantly immunosuppressive.

The third dose of vaccine will be given at least two months after the second dose. Please note both Moderna and Pfizer vaccines will be offered. Drop-in vaccinations are available for third doses at any community clinic in Ottawa during their hours of operation.

Ottawa residents who meet these criteria must present one of the following to receive their third dose:

• A letter from their specialist or hospital program OR
• Current prescription package, label or pharmacy receipt of an immunosuppressant medication listed by the ON government. The prescription must clearly label: patient name, name of medication, date of dispensing, and name of prescribing doctor.

References

Why You Should Vaccinate Your Kids Against Covid

Its time for my healthy nine-year-old son to get vaccinated against COVID-19. In fact, its time for every kid aged five to eleven to get vaccinated.

An advisory committee to the Food and Drug Administration has reviewed the data from clinical trials assessing the safety and efficacy of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in children five to eleven years old. The experts voted unanimously to recommend authorization for this vaccine in children in that age range. As a next step, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will decide whether all kids should have access to the vaccine, or only some. Some experts have proposed use in high-risk children only while we accumulate additional data.

Waiting to vaccinate all children would be a mistake. Based on the data we have, the right answer is clear: the CDC should recommend that all kids ages five to eleven should have be vaccinated as quickly as possible.

There is one thing all experts agree on: Vaccinating children should be based on rigorous evidence and we should set a particularly high bar for using vaccines in healthy children.

Like all vaccines, COVID vaccines can have the standard side-effects of a sore arm, fever or headaches, but these side-effects are mild and short-lived. There are also important concerns about one specific side effect that is crucial to recognize and fully understand: myocarditisor an inflammation of the heart muscle.

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I Have Questions About Parental Consent

Parents that are separated, divorced or not living together

If parents are divorced, separated or have never lived together and they do not agree on vaccinating their child, the parent that wants their child to get vaccinated must:

• Find a Service BC office close to me

Every child can get vaccinated, even if they don’t have a PHN or other documentation.

It doesn’t matter if your child is a Canadian citizen or not. All information will be kept private and will never be shared with other agencies or parts of government.

Don’t Vaccines Cause Harmful Side Effects Illness And Even Death

Some children have minor side effects from getting a vaccine like a slight fever or swelling at the injection site. The risk for death or serious side effects is so small that it is hard to document. Claims that vaccines cause autism or other diseases have been carefully researched and disproved. Rumors persist that an increase in autism in children is caused by thimerosal. This is a preservative added to vaccines. But thimerosal was removed from all vaccines in Sweden in 1995. And the frequency of autism has continued to increase there. Thimerosal has also been nearly removed in the U.S., where autism rates also keep increasing, as they have throughout the world. After a thorough review, in 2004 the Institute of Medicine rejected the idea that vaccines had any relationship with autism.

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What Every Parent Should Know About Immunizations

Watching your child get a shot isn’t easy. It’s even harder if you have fears or concerns about the safety or necessity of the vaccine.

Millions of parents immunize their kids each year without concern. Yet some parents have heard rumors that vaccines can cause serious health problems.

So, how can parents get the facts about vaccine safety? Your child’s healthcare provider is your first source of reliable information. Healthcare providers are bound by law to give you written information on the benefits and risks of each vaccine suggested for your child. Reading this material can help you make a well-informed decision.

Another source of in-depth information on vaccine safety is the CDC.

Dosage Of The Pfizer Mrna Child Vaccine

The Pfizer mRNA vaccine for children uses a smaller dosage of the same vaccine used for youth and adults.

Children need a smaller dose of the vaccine to get the same protection from COVID-19.

If your child turns 12 in 2022, it’s your choice to wait and have them vaccinated with the full dosage for youth and adults.

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Have There Been Any Severe Reactions Among Children

No serious adverse events related to vaccination were reported in the Pfizer-BioNTech clinical trial. Serious allergic reactions have rarely been reported in older people. Anyone with a known severe or immediate allergy to the vaccine or any component of the vaccine should not get the vaccine. If your child has a history of any severe allergic reactions or any type of immediate allergic reaction to a vaccine or injectable therapy, let the vaccine site administrator know so that your child can be monitored for at least 30 minutes after getting the vaccine.

Parents should talk to a trusted health care provider or allergist if they have specific questions about the possibility of an allergic reaction in their child.

Chat To The Disability Team

The team is made up of people who have experience of a disability themselves, or who have worked with the disabled community.

They can answer any questions about:

• accessibility arrangements at different vaccination centres
• getting your vaccination safely
• any effects the vaccine may have on the child or medications.

The disability team is available Monday to Friday, from 8am to 8pm.

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Serious Illness Is Rare

It is rare that COVID-19 causes serious illness, hospitalisation or death in children.

Sometimes, symptoms connected to COVID-19 can continue for some weeks or months. This is called long COVID. The risk of this condition is lower in children compared to adults.

The risk of a child being hospitalised because of COVID-19 is low, and the risk of any child needing intensive care treatment is extremely low.

Rarely, COVID-19 can cause a condition called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children .

MIS-C is also known as paediatric inflammatory multisystem syndrome . It causes pneumonia, inflammation of the heart and difficulty breathing. It can cause death. Most of the reported cases were seen in male children aged 1 to 14.

Why Your Child Should Get Vaccinated

Vaccines can prevent infectious diseases that once killed or harmed many infants, children, and adults. Without vaccines, your child is at risk for getting seriously ill and suffering pain, disability, and even death from diseases like measles and whooping cough.

For parents who have questions about the schedule or wonder why its so important to follow, here are six reasons why you should vaccinate your child on time.

MEASLES:more than 1,200 cases of measles in 2019

It is always better to prevent a disease than to treat it after it occurs.

• Vaccination is a highly effective, safe and easy way to help keep your family healthy.
• On-time vaccination throughout childhood is essential because it helps provide immunity before children are exposed to potentially life-threatening diseases.
• Vaccines are tested to ensure that they are safe and effective for children to receive at the recommended ages.

CDC Vaccine Information Statements explain both the benefits and risks of a vaccine. VISs are available for each vaccine.

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Can My Child Get A Covid

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommends a COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 and older. Johns Hopkins Medicine encourages all families to have eligible children vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine. Currently, Pfizers vaccine is the only approved COVID-19 vaccine for children.

We encourage you to use all available local and state resources, including retail pharmacies, to get the COVID-19 vaccine. You can also review our resources to help find a vaccination site for your child.

If My Kid Is 11 Should We Wait To Get Them The Higher Adult Dose At Age 12

“I would not advise waiting,” says Baldwin. “I think it’s important for parents to understand the lower dosage provided as robust an immune response as the higher dosage did in older kids with less side effects.”

Baldwin says if your child has a 12th birthday coming up very soon, she says it’s OK to wait, but the dose provided in the children’s formulation is enough to protect them from the virus.

If your child turns 12 between their first and second dose, AAP suggests sticking with the lower, 10-microgram dose for both shots.

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What Is Already Known On This Topic

• COVID-19 is generally asymptomatic or mild in children, but can be more severe in those with certain comorbidities.

• There is no consensus on whether all healthy children less than 12 years of age should be vaccinated against COVID-19.

• Data from COVID-19 vaccine use in this age group will become available in the near future.

What Are The Common Side Effects

No new safety problems were identified in the companies’ studies of this vaccine.

The most common side effects documented in the study were similar to those other age groups have had with COVID-19 vaccines. The most common were pain at the injection site, fatigue and headache and muscle aches. Kids who get the vaccine feel “ultimately fine in two or three days,” Kalu says.

Should I be concerned about serious side effects, especially myocarditis?

In very rare cases, following vaccination with mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna, people have developed inflammation of the heart muscle, which is known as myocarditis. In Pfizer’s clinical trial for 5- to 11-year-olds, there were no cases of myocarditis, although the company acknowledged that the trials were not big enough to pick up such rare events.

Myocarditis after vaccination is “very, very rare,” explains Kimberlin. And it’s usually short-lived. In most instances, adolescents who’ve developed myocarditis have improved quickly. “The management of it usually is taking some ibuprofen â some Advil,” Kimberlin says.

Rates of post-vaccination myocarditis are expected to be lower in young kids than those observed in teens. Myocarditis, which can also occur after bacterial and viral infections, including COVID-19, is generally significantly less common among younger children. That’s partly because the condition is linked with puberty hormones, explains pediatrician Nicole Baldwin, who practices in Cincinnati.

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Should Kids Get Vaccinated If They Dont Get Severely Ill From Covid

There are many reasons why you may choose to get your child vaccinated against COVID-19.

It is true that most COVID-19 infections in young children either have no symptoms, or only mild symptoms. But some children do get very sick from COVID-19, or have long term complications from COVID-19.

Less is known about the effects of the Omicron variant in children.

Vaccination is the best way to help prevent your child getting very sick. This is particularly important for children at greater risk.

Another reason you might consider vaccination is because of the indirect benefits to your child.

Vaccination might help prevent school closures and disruptions to extra-curricular activities. School and activities are important for kids general wellbeing.

Vaccination of children could also help your family and community through reduced spread of the virus.

Vaccination in children is effective and safe. The Therapeutic Goods Administration will not approve a vaccine for use in Australia unless it is safe and effective.

The TGAs provisional approval of the Comirnaty vaccine for 5 to 11-year-olds was based on a careful evaluation of available data to support its safety and efficacy among this age group.

If you have further questions, we encourage you to speak with your usual health care provider.