5 Good Reasons to Get Your Young Kid Vaccinated Against COVID-19

Everyone in the U.S. 6 months or older is now eligible to get a COVID-19 vaccine, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) authorized the shots in June for very young children, from 6 months to 5 years old. They’re the last age demographic in the U.S. to become eligible to get vaccinated during the pandemic. Despite the regulatory green light, many parents of young children are wondering whether it’s even necessary to get their kids vaccinated at this point in the pandemic, since infections have become so common and, in general, the virus causes relatively mild symptoms in most kids. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] But while studies that follow kids for longer periods of time are ongoing, the current evidence points to more benefits than risks of the vaccines for little ones. Below are some common concerns among parents, along with the latest consensus from experts about what the science shows so far. Hospitalizations and deaths of the youngest kids are on the rise COVID-19 does tend to cause milder disease in children compared to adults. But Omicron has raised the stakes in this population. Data from CDC’s COVID-19 Data Tracker show that during the peak of the initial Omicron wave, in January to February 2022, rates of hospitalization for infants and toddlers under 4 years old were more than four times that of the rates for children ages 5 to 17 years. Part of that, public health exp...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 healthscienceclimate Source Type: news