SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – It's been nearly two weeks since vaccines were approved for children between the ages of 5 and 6 months.
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This age group was the last to become eligible to receive these life-saving vaccines, and with the newly approved dosage, they are now better protected from contracting COVID-19.
"There are estimates that we've probably saved over 20 million lives around the world," said Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, a professor of health and infectious diseases, pediatrics, epidemiology, and population health at Stanford on KCBS Radio's "Ask an Expert" with Melissa Culross on Friday. "At least one million lives in the United States with the vaccine use."
While children are not as likely to get sick from the virus as much as adults, some have contracted serious illness over the course of the pandemic, to the point of being hospitalized.
Over 1,500 children have died under the age of eighteen, she said.
The benefit of vaccination to prevent these types of deaths is obvious, but the vaccine also provides a much-needed path for families to return to a semblance of normalcy.
"This is a preventable disease," said Maldonado. "The ability for families to get out and to socialize and get their kids back into school safely is really a game-changer."
But this depends on people actually taking the step to get their children vaccinated, and the numbers of those between the ages of 5 and 11 haven’t been particularly high, despite an uptick in the last couple of weeks.
"We do think there is some impetus now to get kids vaccinated," she said. "There's more and more data on the safety of the vaccines, there's more data about the effectiveness of the vaccine and keeping kids out of the hospital."
The goal is to get more people to talk with their pediatricians and learn this helpful information.
This is especially important as even though COVID-19 is not as prevalent in children as it is in adults, it is in the top five causes of death for children under 18 in every age group.
"Children under 18 are just not supposed to get that sick," said Maldonado. "It is a preventable problem."
Parents should highly consider getting their children under the age of 2 vaccinated as soon as possible, because they really can't wear masks, which can be helpful in preventing transmission.
It could be helpful to think of the COVID-19 vaccine as similar to the flu shot, which is recommended for every age group 6 months or older.
The flu is a seasonal epidemic, it comes every year without fail around the world, which is what health experts hope COVID-19 will wind up doing as well.
"We don't really have a season yet, but we're hoping that we're heading in that direction where enough people will have immunity that we’ll be able to keep up with boosters on a regular basis," said Maldonado, and eventually, the virus will become less severe.
People should get their children vaccinated now, as soon as they can, so they can be protected for the summer.
Then, they can get boosted with the variant-specific vaccines likely to become available in the fall.
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