Doctors recommend COVID vaccine for babies and toddlers
MINNEAPOLIS -- Rochester's Kaley Johnson has been waiting for a COVID-19 vaccine for her 9-month-old son.
"There has just been a lot of anxiety having a baby in a pandemic," she said. "I'm definitely excited."
Johnson's baby was like the almost 70% of kids that are believed to have gotten COVID at some point during the pandemic. Still, doctors say regardless if a child has had the disease, the vaccine is worth it.
"The immune response you get from the vaccine is a better response than you get potentially from having the disease itself and the vaccine could also cover more varieties, more variants," Park Nicollet family physician Dr. Shannon Neale said.
CDC survey findings released over the weekend how around a third of parents say they plan to get their child in that agre group vaccinated.
Iola Kostrzewski is vaccinated against COVID-19 but she isn't planning to vaccinate her 4-year-old until he's older. She says it's partly due to the FDA delays on a vaccine for this age group.
"So some of it comes from that and some of it is we've been really fine so far," she said.
Other parents told WCCO they were holding off on vaccinating over concerns of any long term side effects.
The trial data shows the vaccines are safe and effective.
Doctors emphasize some children can and do get very sick from the disease, and that the vaccines are effective at reducing infection severity.
"Children tend to be at somewhat lower risk from influenza, however, we do have deaths every year from the flu," Neale said.
Data from the CDC shows that nearly six times more kids and teens died from COVID compared to the new flu in one year.
Neale says parents with preschool age children should plan ahead for the two and three dose options ahead of the school year.