Op-Ed: Until every age group has access to vaccines, we’re kidding ourselves that we have a handle on COVID as a predictable illness. (via latimesopinion)
By now we’ve learned playing catch-up on COVID is too little too late.
Will authorizing vaccines for our littlest humans lead us straight to coveted endemicity? Probably not, from a numbers standpoint. One of the challenges of studying COVID vaccines in the younger population is that, thankfully,, get hospitalized or die from infection. So to prove that a vaccine minimizes such risks in a population already at relatively low risk has been a significant challenge.
But the data are getting us there, and even if only a small percentage of young children get vaccinated, it will move us closer to overall community protection, especially in the younger set. Although millions of young children have already contracted COVID, we don’t know if they will remain as protected from future illness as they would be if immunized.
Meanwhile, physicians should remain resolute in our message that we recommend and give vaccines to protect our patients and the public, full stop. Though distrust of doctors and the pharmaceutical industry increasingly trumps this statement, we remain a direct point of contact for patients, and we’re in a position to tell them the truth about vaccines. For kids just as for adults, even in year three of the pandemic, that truth still matters.
Nina Shapiro is director of pediatric ear, nose and throat at the Mattel Children’s Hospital and a professor of head and neck surgery at UCLA. She is the author of “The Ultimate Kids’ Guide to Being Super Healthy.”