In a few days, pediatric doses of the Pfizer COVID vaccine should be available to vaccine providers in Louisiana. On Tuesday the CDC approved the vaccine for 5- to 11-year-olds. State Health Officer Doctor Joe Kanter said the two-dose vaccine, given 21 days apart, is the same as the adult vaccine just a third of the dosage.
“In general, you try a range of doses, and you always go with the lowest possible dose that gets you the effective immune response that you want, so here it was about a third the size of the adult dose,” said Kanter.
Kanter said children get infected with COVID at the same rate as adults if not more, but on average they haven’t gotten as sick as adults, so convincing parents to have their children vaccinated is going to be an uphill battle.
“But that doesn’t mean it’s an absolute, because we’ve had 18 pediatric deaths, nine of which were in just this past surge in the past three months, and so those averages obviously mean nothing if it’s your family,” said Kanter.
Kanter also noted there have been more than 200 cases of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children and we are just now learning about Long-COVID.
Even with daily case counts below three hundred in Louisiana now, from October 21st through the 27th ages 5 to 17 made up the majority of new cases at 21%. Kanter said even though most children don’t get severely ill from COVID they can carry it home to a loved one who could be more susceptible.
“One in four COVID deaths in the country result in a child losing a parent, which is a profound statistic. So, I really do think that vaccinating this age group is in the best interest of those kids,” said Kanter.
Parental consent is required for any minor to be vaccinated in Louisiana. If you have questions or concerns about the vaccine, you can call the vaccine hotline at 1-855-453-0774 or visit LDH.la.gov/COVID for more information.
For a copy of the vaccine consent form go to ldh.la.gov/Covid-19K-12
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