There is a race right now to vaccinate Americans as quickly as possible, but even as we reach those vaccination goals for adults, what about kids? When is it their turn?
Dr. Perri Klass, a professor of pediatrics at NYU, says when it comes to answering any vaccine questions, "first most important thing to say is talk. Yes, ask your pediatrician. You're going to have questions. People are going to want to talk about the possibility of the COVID vaccine for kids and when and how and why. And pediatricians. We love talking about shots. We want to make sure the kids are also getting their regular shots and that they're fully up to date and protected."
Are kids at risk for getting COVID from the adults in the house once the adults are vaccinated?
"We're going to have to understand for sure whether people who are vaccinated can theoretically transmit the virus. And it's why they're emphasizing the importance that even if you're vaccinated, you still need to wear a mask, you still need to distance," she says.
A Good Time to Be Born
Dr Klass just wrote a new book called 'A Good Time to Be Born.'
She says while many people may feel that we are living through horrible times, we are actually at an advanced time in history, medically speaking, and it's good to remember that-- especially now.
"I wanted to write about that unbelievable victory for us as a human species. We look at our children and we can expect them to live to grow up. I love vaccines because I've never seen polio. Because when a child comes in with a sore throat, I don't have to think, could this be diphtheria because I don't have to be terrified of scarlet fever," she says.
What if parents don't want to vaccinate their kids with the COVID vaccine once available?
Dr. Klass says, "The way we make the world safer for children is by making the world safer for everybody. And one of the ways we do this is by vaccination. We're not going to be able to escape this pandemic on an individual basis. We're going to have to escape it as a herd, and children are an incredibly important part of our herd."
What if parents want to wait for more research?
Nobody is suggesting giving these vaccines to children without a full scientific trial and without carefully tracking everything that happens. And by the time we have the results of those trials, I think you're going to see that many parents in many places are, again, really going to be eager not only to protect their children, but to protect everyone in the extended family, in the extended family, to protect the teachers, protect the school, create a safer world for everyone," says Dr. Klass."
