Doctors recommend parents don't wait before vaccinating young kids against COVID
Parents who are considering getting their child vaccinated should do so as doctors are concerned with the long-term effects of COVID-19, experts said Thursday.
During a Newsday Live panel webinar titled “COVID Vaccinations for Young Children: What Parents Should Know,” experts discussed the worry of kids 6 months to 5 years old not being vaccinated.
Dr. Sharon Nachman, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Stony Brook Children's Hospital, said the side effects of the vaccine in children are no different from in adults.
“Our experience with COVID, particularly those who are not vaccinated, has shown us that not only is COVID an illness to be worried about but the long haul symptoms that we’re seeing in COVID, up to 10% of those children, is very very worrisome,” Nachman said.
Dr. Eve Meltzer-Krief, of Huntington Village Pediatrics, said pediatricians are concerned with the long-term effects of COVID-19 which “are somewhat unknown.”
Parents, Meltzer-Krief said, have explained to her that they may want to wait until school starts in the fall to get their child vaccinated to which she said she cautions them that two weeks must pass after the second COVID-19 shot is administered before the full benefit takes effect.
“We just feel it’s much more important to get the vaccine than to risk getting” COVID, she said. “It’s always safer to get vaccinated against the disease than to get the actual disease.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on Long Island, Nassau County is a “high transmission” area for COVID-19 while Suffolk County is a “medium transmission.” In both counties wearing a mask indoors remains voluntary.
The coming fall and winter season for COVID-19 will be “incredibly bad” Nachman said, adding that getting vaccinated “puts you in a better category” than those who get the coronavirus.
A vaccination will “certainly protect you against hospitalization or death,” she said.
Meltzer-Krief said vaccines “provide a much wider range of protection.”
A clinical trial will be done soon for babies between 12 weeks to 6 months to find out when they can receive a COVID-19 vaccination, Nachman said.
