Page 20 - BusinessWest November 10, 2021
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Shot in the Arm
State Announces Pediatric COVID-19 Vaccination Plans
Following updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Baker-Polito admin- istration has outlined how families in Massachusetts can
access Pfizer COVID-19 pediatric vaccines for children ages 5 to 11.
Children will be able to receive the Pfizer pediatric COVID-19 vaccine from more than 500 locations, including retail pharma- cies, primary-care practices, regional collaboratives, local boards of health, community health centers, hospital systems, state-support- ed vaccination sites, and mobile clinics. Some appointments are available now for booking, with additional locations and appoint- ments expected to come online in the coming days.
“Pediatricians and parents should be very excited about the approval of the COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11,” said Dr. John O’Reilly, chief of General Pediatrics at Baystate Children’s Hospital. “Some parents may be reluctant to have their children in this age group vaccinated, but if a day of soreness can get your child safely back to playing with friends and visiting relatives, then the benefits clearly outweigh the discomfort.”
As a pediatrician, O’Reilly said he had been hoping for this approval for months.
“I was very glad that the FDA took the time to be sure that the vaccine was safe and effective for children in this age group before it was approved,” he added. “Clinical trials of over 3,000 children who received the vaccine found it produced protective levels of antibodies with only mild reactions to the shot, such as pain at the injection site, fatigue, and headache.”
He understands that some parents might have safety concerns, but noted that much misinformation has been spread about the development of the mRNA vaccines, especially considering how fast the COVID vaccines were rolled out. The truth, he noted, is that sci- entists have been working on the development of mRNA vaccines for decades. The basic scientific advances in gene sequencing and gene modeling allowed companies to quickly adapt mRNA technol- ogy to the COVID-19 virus.
“Vaccine development is very expensive, and companies devel-
“Some parents may be reluctant to have their children in this age group vaccinated, but if a day of soreness can get your child safely back to playing with friends and visiting relatives, then the benefits clearly outweigh the discomfort.”
oping other vaccines would be slower in developing them because of the cost,” he explained. “Operation Warp Speed gave companies billions of dollars in support and guaranteed purchases, allowing companies to use those funds to quickly ramp up clinical trials and manufacturing. The trials themselves followed the highest stan- dards of research, and the FDA has reviewed all of the trial data to be sure that the COVID- 19 vaccines are safe and effective.”
O’Reilly noted that children infected with COVID-19 tend to experience mild symptoms, but for some, it can be more serious. Since the pandemic began, about 1.9 million children ages 5 to 11 have been infected, about 9% of all U.S. cases. More than 8,300 in this age group have been hospitalized, with about one-third requir- ing ICU care, and 94 have died, according to federal data. Chil- dren ages 5 to 11 who are black, Native American, or Hispanic are three times more likely to be hospitalized with COVID than white children.
Also, several thousand children infected with the virus have developed severe cases of inflammation throughout their bodies
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          20 NOVEMBER 10, 2021
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