State health officials have begun a campaign to vaccinate young children against COVID-19, since the US Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control both approved the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 5-11 on November 2.
KCAW’s Robert Woolsey attended a statewide press conference (11-4-21) with the Department of Health and Social Services to learn how the message would be shaped in Alaska. In short, the holiday season will be safer for everyone if young children are immunized against the virus.
Note: Register here to schedule an appointment for anyone age 5 and older to get a free covid vaccine or booster from SEARHC. Harry Race Pharmacy is holding its first free vaccination clinic for children on Thursday, November 11. You can learn more by calling 907-206-2202, or schedule an appointment here.
The approval of a covid vaccine for children ages 5-11 has created some questions parents — the most obvious of which is whether getting vaccinated is worth the risk. So far, this age group has been one of the least-affected demographics in the pandemic, accounting for about 11-percent of all cases, according to the US Centers for Disease Control.
Dr. Anne Zink, chief medical officer for Alaska — a parent of young children herself — weighed the pros and cons.
“We know that kids are not impacted by COVID the same way as adults are, but they’ve been impacted in many ways,” said Zink. “We still see kids to do get sick from COVID-19. And as a parent myself it can be nerve wracking to think about vaccinating your child. It’s just hard to give them a shot when they’re happy and healthy and playful in so many ways. But the data is clear that these vaccines are really safer than many things that we do, even most over-the-counter medications. And we know that even imperfect tools like car seats still make a huge difference in protecting our kiddos. And so just like we buckle up our kids in the car, consider getting them vaccinated.”
Dr. Zink said that the pediatric Pfizer vaccine — which is now available in Sitka — has undergone extensive testing, and has proven 90-percent effective in preventing severe COVID-19 disease. Although Alaska has not had a pediatric death from covid, nationwide 94 children age 5 to 11 have died — making it the eighth-leading cause of death in that age group, according to the CDC.
Read a CDC report on the Epidemiology of COVID-19 in Children Aged 5 to 11 Years.
Zink suggested that the covid vaccine was just the latest tool in a decades-long — and highly successful — effort to vaccinate children against preventable disease.
“You know, we’ve been using childhood vaccination for a long time to really help protect our kiddos as well as our communities from diseases,” Zink said. “And we’re really making many diseases preventable diseases. If you look between 1994 and 2018, vaccinations have really prevented over 400 million illnesses and avoided almost 1 million deaths and children. So vaccines have been a tremendous tool against viruses and against vaccine-preventable diseases.”
Another benefit of protecting young children against covid, is that they would present less of a hazard to family members who may be immunocompromised, elderly, or otherwise unable to mount a robust immune system response to covid — even if they’re vaccinated themselves. This could be a game-changer at Thanksgiving and other events during the holiday season. Nevertheless, Zink urged Alaskans to be conscientious about planning for the holidays, to prevent the spread of covid.
“I kind of think of things like the holidays: We prepare for it by going grocery shopping and coming up with our menus and dividing up,” said Zink. “And we can do the same thing, we’re thinking about covid. And so that may be minimizing our exposure, or not going out to eat with a lot of other people for the 10 days or so beforehand, and minimizing who else we’re exposed to. Making sure that we don’t go if we’re symptomatic, because you may have covid, or you may have RSP, or influenza. It’s great to share our love and friendship at the holiday season, but not our viruses.”
Zink said that vaccination remains the number one tool in the fight against covid. So far, 66-percent of Alaskans age 12 and over have had at least one dose of vaccine. Although that statistic will drop when 5 to 11-year olds are factored in, Zink was encouraged that 2-3,000 Alaskans are getting vaccinated each week.
