Don't expect COVID vaccine for youngest kids at state sites when it rolls out
KENDALL – COVID shots have finally been approved for the youngest people in the United States, but Florida is the only state that has not ordered any from the federal government.
"There's a surplus of this, doctors can get it, hospitals can get it but there's not going to be any state programs that are going to be trying to get COVID jabs infants, toddlers and newborns," Gov. Ron DeSantis said.
DeSantis stood by the state's decision to recommend against kids under 5 getting the COVID vaccine, thus the state will not be getting it early, and that has some parents scratching their heads.
"Just the fact that we don't even get the opportunity to get it in the first phase of it rolling out, yeah okay maybe I will get it down for future purposes, again what if there are moms out there for whatever reason want to get the vaccine now," Karen Gordillo said.
Gordillo is the mother of a 1-year-old boy.
"All I can tell you is that winter was extremely difficult a lot of, a lot of sicknesses and still dealing with it in the summertime, so there's a lot of things to consider, we just got over a horrible cold," she told CBS 4.
Like some parents, she's still weighing the decision carefully.
"Everyone has a choice to have their kids vaccinated or not but at the same time there's been trials that have supported the safety the efficacy of the vaccine," Dr. Yiraima Medina said. Medina is a pediatric ER specialist at HCA Florida Kendall Hospital. She's aware there may be misconceptions about the vaccine for young kids, but stresses it is safe.
"Most of the parents the fear that they have are, what are the side effects right? S, basically they want to know exactly what's going to happen after getting the vaccine, we do know most of the vaccines even the ones that they get like as routine in the pediatrician's office, they get a fever, they get a little bit of irritability or like crying more," she explained. But those side effects are common and normal.
For Dr. Medina, the benefits outweigh the risks of a child getting severely sick, and possibly needing hospitalization. "We have seen a lot of cases of COVID that have been complicated with multi-system inflammatory response system, we have also seen cases that have resulted in death, they're not the majority of cases, they're rare."
Pharmacies and local doctors will eventually have the vaccine for kids under 5 in stock, once the feds make it available to them, however, it's unclear at this point, when that will happen. Some states expect to get the vaccine as early as next week.