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Dr. Karen DenBesten, an infectious disease specialist at McLaren Northern Michigan, can speak from personal experience regarding having a teenager and thoughts about the COVID-19 vaccine.
“I think there’s some hesitancy on the parent’s part, but I can tell you that kids want to get vaccinated because they know it’s their ticket to freedom,” DenBesten said on Monday.
“My daughter was the best vaccine pusher out there,” DenBesten added. “She got all her friends immunized … she wants to have a fun summer.”
It has been a little more than a week since Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine became available for youth ages 12-15, and since then 13.2% of the Health Department of Northwest Michigan’s population in this age group and 32.6% in the 16-19 age group have gotten at least one dose.
Both the health department and DenBesten said widespread vaccination, including doses for children and teens, is critical to help stop the pandemic and get the public closer to normal life.
“I think there’s a lot of parents who say they want the vaccine, but they’re not sure if they want to give it to their kids,” DenBesten said. “It’s true, kids tend to do better with COVID and not get as sick, but that’s not entirely the case.
“Where we’re seeing the transmission now is in the younger kids who haven’t been immunized and they are the vulnerable population now,” she added. “We do know that kids can get seriously ill, it doesn’t happen as frequently, but this is the population now that is getting ill and ending up in the hospital because it’s our vulnerable population right now.”
DenBesten said at least 70% of school-aged children will likely need to be immunized if school systems plan to return to in-person learning without masks in the fall.
“We’re seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and everybody need to do their part,” DenBesten said. “Get your immunization and if you’re in a situation where there are un-immunized people, by all means wear a mask. This isn’t over yet.”
On Tuesday, Moderna announced its COVID-19 vaccine is safe and appears to be effective in adolescents. In a phase 2/3 trial of 3,723 children aged 12-17 in the United States, blood tests showed the vaccine produced an immune response that was equivalent to earlier findings in adults.
Moderna plans to submit results of their trial to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in early June along with a request for authorization to use the vaccine in adolescents. It also plans to submit the data to a pee-reviewed publication.
“There are steps parents can take to help ready their child or teen for the vaccine,” said Lisa Peacock, health officer with the Health Department of Northwest Michigan. “Parents are first and foremost role models for this children so they can also prepare their child by modeling healthy behaviors and get vaccinated.”
The health department offered several steps and tips to help a child and their parent or guardian know what to expect when they receive their COVID-19 vaccination.
Those steps include the following:
• Get tips for how to support your child before, during and after the visit.
• Explain there may be some side effects, which are normal signs that their body is building protection. These side effects may affect your child’s ability to do daily activities, but they should go away in a few days. Some people have no side effects.
• Ask your child’s healthcare provider about using a non-aspirin pain reliever to comfort the child after vaccination. It is not recommended you give pain relievers before vaccination for the purpose of trying to prevent side effects.
• Tell the doctor or nurse about any allergies your child may have.
• Comfort your child during the appointment.
• To prevent fainting and injuries related to fainting, your child should be seated during vaccination and for 15 minutes after the vaccine is given.
• After your child’s COVID-19 vaccination, you will be asked to stay for 15-30 minutes so the child can be observed in case a severe allergic reaction develops and needs immediate treatment.
Peacock said the health department is currently working to coordinate various vaccination opportunities in regions throughout its service area, which includes Antrim, Charlevoix, Emmet and Otsego counties.
“This is our attempt to hit the road, offering pop-up locations in areas we haven’t previously held many vaccination clinics, or where data shows there are still many unvaccinated people,” she said.
For a complete list of available vaccination clinics through the rest of May and into June, visit www.nwhealth.org.
Additionally, new daily cases of the virus have dropped substantially as of late, as the health department from Saturday, May 22, to Monday reported 15 cases and one COVID-19 associated death in Charlevoix County.
On Sunday, just one new case was confirmed in Emmet County, while on Monday six cases were confirmed including one each in Antrim and Emmet County, four in Charlevoix County and none in Otsego County.