As a parent, getting your child vaccinated may not be an easy phone call

If Alejandra Castañeda goes her way, her daughter Violeta will be vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as possible.

Denver’s mother said she was worried about the 11-year-old missing school if Violeta got sick. She also wants to bring her children to meet an out-of-state family.

However, Castagneda’s ex-husband, Greg Benchwick, was initially uncertain whether he wanted his daughter to be immunized immediately. He said he wanted more evidence that Shot did not cause serious and lasting side effects in children of her age.

“That’s a really difficult question for parents,” said Benchwick, who lives in Denver, reflecting the decisions faced by families with young children today.

Colorado began vaccination of children aged 5 to 11 years with the coronavirus on Wednesday, after the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention went ahead and led what. President Joe Biden “Turning point of the battle with COVID-19.”

However, parents are cautious about giving consent when the state launches a campaign to manage shots in 479,895 Colorado in that age group.

Many parents, like Castañeda, who spoke to The Denver Post, hopefully vaccine for infants for months worried that their children will get sick and that the virus infection will interfere with face-to-face learning at school. I’m watching the arrival of.

Other parents are not ready to immunize their children about concerns about potential long-term side effects. Their parents do not necessarily reject the COVID-19 vaccine altogether and may be vaccinated themselves.

Parents’ hesitation challenges Colorado’s public health authorities’ goal of immunizing at least half of children aged 5 to 11 by the end of January.

“I’m not surprised,” said Dr. Matthew Daly, a pediatrician and senior researcher at the Kaiser Permanente Institute of Health, hesitating. “Parents—they will always want to do their best for their children. They may be more risky about their children.”

Colorado public health and medical experts said Pfizer’s COVID-19 shot, the only vaccine approved for use in infants, is safe for people between the ages of 5 and 11.

“The scrutiny of these vaccines from regulators is very rigorous,” said Dr. Lalit Bajaj, a pediatric emergency physician at Colorado Children’s Hospital. “If we thought it was safe and the benefits did not outweigh the risks, we wouldn’t put it out there. There is a lot of hope for optimism.”

In the Colorado pandemic, the number of cases is increasing as it was a year ago, and state officials are concerned that holidays are approaching and the flu season may occur, so COVID for infants- 19 The arrival of the vaccine is at a critical time. Further pressure on the hospital, They warned that the capacity could be reached by the end of the month.

The latest surge in incidents began and spurred this summer when children returned to school. Increased adolescent infectious diseases.. Children continue to account for the majority of COVID-19 cases in Colorado, according to the State Department of Health.

“I have a lot of feelings about the vaccine,” said eight-year-old Noah Carrie, who gets his first shot later this month. “I don’t like needles, so I have a lot of very unpleasant feelings of being afraid to get this, but that’s the only way I can inject it into my system.”

According to medical experts, children are unlikely to experience severe cases of COVID-19 that can lead to hospitalization, but there is a risk of illness.Infants can be prone to develop rare but potentially fatal conditions Pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome, or MIS-C, After coronavirus infection. According to the CDC, this condition can cause inflammation of the heart, lungs, kidneys, and other organs.

The child can also be what is known as Long-distance carrier, With symptoms and sequelae that can last for weeks or months.

In addition, children can spread the virus to others, including those at high risk of complications, according to officials from the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment.

State epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Harley said in a statement after the CDC approved the firing on Tuesday: “Vaccination of children is an important thing we can all do before we get together with our families on vacation. That’s it. “

Parents are worried about the side effects of the vaccine

Britney Montoya of Manassa said he was worried before he was vaccinated twice in the spring with Moderna. Still, she heard that the Conejos County authorities had an extra dose that could be wasted, “if they’re going to test it with someone, they can test it with me,” she said. Said.

However, Montoya, 35, said she didn’t like the mobile clinic that received the shot. She is safer to be vaccinated in a family clinic where doctors and nurses are familiar with the patient’s medical history and can make more informed decisions about whether a person should be shot. He said he thought it was.

“I can’t do that with my kids,” she said about taking them to a mobile clinic. “They are used to their doctors.”

As a result, Montoya, who has five children between the ages of two and thirteen, is undecided about whether four eligible children will be vaccinated and will wait until a family doctor takes it before making a final decision with her husband. It states that it will give.

According to a poll on October 28 by the Kaiser Family Foundation, one-third of American parents plan to wait for how well the COVID-19 vaccine works before inoculating young children. increase.

According to polls, another 30% of parents said they would not be vaccinated at all between the ages of 5 and 11, and 27% of parents said they would take their young children to be vaccinated “immediately”. ..

The parents surveyed cited safety as one of the main reasons they were still uncertain about vaccines for their children.

11-year-old Violeta’s father, Benchwick, said he was worried that the size of the Pfizer vaccine trial, which investigated shot safety in about 3,100 infants, was not large enough to catch side effects. Stated. He prefers to wait for 2 million shots to reach the age group to see how they work.

Vaccine research may seem small, but it’s actually bigger than usual in such a small age group, says Kaiser Permanente’s pediatrician Daily.

Montoya said he was also concerned about potential side effects, especially as high blood pressure and diabetes occur in the family. She is particularly concerned about the potential risk of myocarditis, a condition that inflames the heart, and has been reported in some older patients after vaccination.

Children’s hospital doctors Daley and Bajaj said that young children are at greater risk of developing myocarditis than vaccines after COVID infection.

“What we are finding is that children’s natural COVID can cause serious illness, especially heart dysfunction,” says Bajaj. “Vaccine-related things are very rare, and even if that happens, it’s very mild.”

A Pfizer vaccine study of children aged 5 to 11 years found that this age group had more typical immediate but temporary vaccine side effects such as fever, malaise, and headache than teens and young adults. It turns out that you are unlikely to experience.

The difference may be due to the low doses in children, said Bajaj, executive sponsor of a trial at a children’s hospital that examined Pfizer’s vaccine for infants.

Vaccines available to children aged 5 to 11 include two doses every three weeks, but at lower doses. According to the US Food and Drug Administration, the age group is given 10 micrograms instead of the 30 micrograms that people over the age of 12 receive.

Montoya said he was not against the vaccine. Her children are accepting others, including this year’s flu shot, and recommending adults to be immunized against the corona virus, but children are vaccinated because they are less exposed at home schooling. She said she wanted more time to decide whether or not to do it.

“I trust science. I do. I just want to make sure that what they give them protects them and causes nothing else,” Montoya said. ..

“I hope everyone there will get their vaccine.”

Other parents, including Noah’s eight-year-old mother, have already booked a promise to vaccinate their children. Vanessa Vargas of Westminster booked a slot on November 14th for Noah to receive her first injection.