According to scientists, the benefits of vaccines outweigh the risks for children.

According to polls, some parents are hesitant to vaccinate young children with COVID-19, but the benefits outweigh the risks, some infectious disease doctors told Axios.

latest: FDA and CDC May approve soon Moderna is also seeking approval for Pfizer’s low-dose vaccine for that age group. NIAID director Anthony Fauci says he is “excited” at the potential to expand the protection potential of more than 28 million Americans.

• “If you go to a children’s hospital across the country, sadly you will find that many of the beds are occupied by children in critical condition,” Fauci told Axios.
• Highly contagious delta variant Changed the trajectory of the pandemic: More people, including children, have begun to get infected. Children account for 16.5% of cases, about 6 million people are infected and 700 die.
• “There are many SARS-CoV-2 infections [in kids] Rohan Hazra, deputy director of the Out-of-Wall Research Division at the National Institute for Pediatric Health and Human Development, said the number of cases had declined by early summer. Vaccination discussion.

Yes, but: Public health efforts to convince Americans to get vaccinated Suffering from a bad message..

• recently Kaiser Family Foundation Poll It turns out that 3 out of 10 parents say “never shoot” to children aged 5-11.
• NS Axios / Ipsos Coronavirus Index At the end of September, parents were found to be split when allowing children aged 5 to 11 years to be vaccinated (44% chance / 42% chance).

Vaccine risk is tracked Closely by the FDA and CDC, Fauci and others say. Test data Pfizer’s COVID shots so far Very small risk.

• If young children have serious side effects from the vaccine, “usually in animal studies and other age groups, there will now be some signs …. as far as I know, there is no such thing. was”. Says Ameshua Darha, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health and Security.

Line spacing: In general, younger people are less likely to have serious symptoms of COVID-19 infection.

• However, while most children have no serious symptoms, “it is not possible to predict who will develop severe COVID. MIS-C Also Long COVID.. The full range of immunology of COVID in children is not well defined, “said Danielo Buonsenso, a pediatrician at the Gemmeri University Hospital in Rome. Long COVID..
• “One of the things we don’t know is what is the long-term effect of a virus that has the ability to invade the body and provoke abnormal inflammatory and immune responses,” Fauci says. ..
• Hazura, who is studying MIS-C and long COVID in children, says how many of these diseases in children are due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and how much are from others. Tell Axios that he is serious about “the main, the main questions.” Pandemic stressor. This requires a large cohort study of. Long-term impact..
• “It’s really really difficult because the pandemic itself has had such an effect on children, so when talking about poor concentration, pain, brain fog, malaise, anxiety, these real symptoms are latent. It’s part of a long COVID … but we need to clarify how much of this is the result of the infection, “says Hazra.

What they are saying: “COVID-19 disrupts children’s lives, and the higher the immunity of the population, the better,” says Adalja.

• “This benefits individual children because they are no longer held hostage by COVID. They are not isolated for exposure. They are not bound by virtual learning,” says Adalja.
• “This makes them more resilient to the virus individually and is part of their school and their organization, and their activities that are more resilient to the virus,” he said. Added.
• Buon Senso says this return to normal also helps the child’s mental health. “I definitely propose vaccinations for all age groups and distribute them fairly throughout the world without ignoring low-income countries.”
• Vaccination not only helps prevent severe illness and long-term symptoms, but may also indirectly contribute to the protection of people under the age of 5 who may have severe COVID. “Buonsenso points out.

Dig deeper: NSauci: “I will vaccinate them soon“”