PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Philadelphia Department of Public Health reported that 8% of 5-to-11-year-olds in the city have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
The numbers are low in more underserved areas of the city, three weeks since the CDC gave the green light for kids those ages.
So far, 5.8% of Hispanic children and 3.9% of African-American kids in the city have received the COVID-19 shot.
Dr. Ala Stanford, with the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium and the Dr. Ala Stanford Center for Health Equity in North Philadelphia, said it may be too soon to analyze any trends in this age group.
She said it's all about convenience in Black and brown communities.
"We haven't done that across the city yet, and I think that if you do that and the percentage doesn't go up, then we can say something different," Dr. Stanford said.
"In the suburbs, parents were lined up immediately to get vaccines for their children. But most of them were parents that could take off work and such. In a lot of our Black and brown communities and underserved areas, they may not have paid time off."
Dr. Stanford said parents have been coming into her office with their children, but the vaccine has to be made easily accessible for the numbers to increase.
Meanwhile, she said parents who are taking the "wait and see" approach should consider the dangers of kids getting COVID-19.
"A multi-system inflammatory syndrome or complex that affects every organ system in a child that gets COVID," she said.
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"A lot of those things are irreversible, the damage it does to the kidney and to the heart and liver."
Dr. Stanford also said all parents should take comfort in the fact that the kids are only being given a third of the adult Pfizer dose.
"It's phenomenal! Because a lot of the adverse events or side effects you saw were correlating with the amount that you got," she said.
"If you can get less vaccine and get maximum protection, I would take less all day."
According to the CDC, COVID-19 ranks as one of the top 10 causes of death for children ages 5 through 11, and Dr. Stanford said Black and brown children account for almost half.
The Department of Public Health recommends that parents get their children vaccinated as soon as possible.
