Top Louisiana pediatrician praises FDA’s vaccine authorization in young kids

The FDA has authorized emergency use of the Moderna and Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines for children under 5 years of age, a move applauded by one of the top pediatricians in Louisiana. Mark Kline is physician-in-chief and chief medical officer at Children’s Hospital New Orleans. He says this is long overdue.

“We hope and expect that these vaccines will prevent severe disease in these youngest of children, keep them out of the hospital, and help to prevent deaths from occurring,” said Kline.

Kline expects about 15-20% of parents will rush to get their kids vaccinated to protect them from a potentially serious illness, but a larger group will still be nervous about it. He says it’s up to healthcare professionals to keep parents properly informed.

“About the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines, and convince them that this is the right thing to do for their kids,” says Kline.

The Pfizer vaccine for young kids is 3 shots each with one-tenth of the dose for adults spaced three weeks apart for the 1st and 2nd, then the 3rd given 8 weeks later. Moderna is two doses given 4 weeks apart each one-quarter of the adult dose.

Kline says both shots are safe and effective. He wants to let parents know it’s a myth that kids can’t get Covid, or that they wouldn’t get very sick if they did.

“We’ve seen lots of kids who were seriously ill with Covid,” says Kline. “We’ve had many many hospitalizations here at Children’s New Orleans and we’ve had some deaths. So at this point with the vaccines available, these are all preventable illnesses.”

In terms of side effects, Kline says they’ve only seen a few cases of mild fever and soreness at the injection site, but the benefits of the vaccines far outweigh the risks.

Story by Michelle Southern