The CDC Approves Pfizer Vaccine for 5–11-Year-Old Children

Parents should vaccinate their 5–11-year-old children, to protect them from serious long-term illness, their grandparents, and themselves. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention just recently approved the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 5-11. Local health providers announced dozens of Covid-19 vaccinations opportunities for children beginning Monday November 8th. Why not take advantage of this free opportunity to protect your child and family? Every day kids go to school and risk contracting Covid and putting their loved ones at risk. If kids are vaccinated, they won’t be spreading germs and illness at schools, and taking it home to their families, increasing our numbers in communities.

Over 735 thousand people have died due to Covid-19. Beloved grandparents, parents, children and loved friends have all been lost during this pandemic. People have foolishly believed they were stronger than Covid, just to catch it and die from these circumstances. Is it worth losing your child over a choice to not get vaccinated? Childhood Covid-19 cases are, 8,500 per 100 thousand children in the population. This might seem low but that’s still 8,500 children that attend school and spread Covid to their classmates, teachers, and all their families involved. This global pandemic has been going on for over two years now, decreasing in cases and surging again. Over 422 million Coivd-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the United States, which meant fully vaccinating 192 million people, or 58% of the population in America.

Yes, vaccines can come with side effects, most have been unpleasant, but extremely uncommon. Covid-19 cases in children can result in hospitalizations, deaths, Inflammatory Syndromes, and long-term complications, such as “long Covid” in which symptoms can linger for months. Similar to what they’ve seen in adult vaccine trials, vaccination was nearly 91 percent effective in preventing Covid-19 among children aged 5-11 years. Is the potential threat of a side effect, worth your child having long term Covid-19 health problems if they contract it? In clinical trials, vaccine side effects were mild, self-limiting, and similar to those seen in adults and like other vaccines recommended for children. The most common side effect was a sore arm.

Covid-19 used to mainly target senior citizens. They were at more risk due to other health problems, old age, weaker lungs, and retirement homes. Vaccinating your children as soon as possible will help protect elderly people because children are exposed to hundreds of other children every day. Kids forget, they share drinks and food, and are close with each other and it is very common for any illness to spread rapidly in a child rich environment. All these germs can be quickly transferred from young children to the elderly by simple displays of interaction. Covid is no longer only targeting the elderly. Kids can be secret spreaders, some might not even show or have signs of Covid, this is a concern for all communities. With so many variables it is impossible to limit exposer and live what we would consider a “normal life” without children also being vaccinate along with other segments of the population. Wouldn’t it be great to not have to consider contact tracing before making plans with grandkids or family? Wanting normalcy like we used to have is understandable, but must be weighed against the risk to ourselves, our loved ones, and the community at large.

This is the first of many probable pandemics in the future. Rather than being stubborn and inconsiderate, parents should always protect their children and in this case that means making sure they have one more vaccination. Protesting and arguing against microscopic germs is a waste of crucial time. Without taking action, nothing is going to change, and Covid will continue to spread, kill, and limit our daily lives. Science has provided an opportunity for safety, people need to respect the time, dedication, and collaboration required to produce this miracle vaccine, and get the shot. To protect their kids, themselves, and the community.