- The American Academy of Pediatrics is launching an advertising campaign to convince parents to get their children vaccinated against COVID-19.
- The organization says the vaccines are safe, effective, and can be administered along with other childhood immunizations.
- Experts say getting children vaccinated protects them as well as the people around them such as grandparents, teachers, and other kids.
As schools reopen and the COVID-19 Delta variant sends case numbers shooting back up, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has launched a full-court press against misinformation when it comes to getting children 12 years old and older vaccinated.
The AAP’s campaign includes television and radio public service announcements in English and Spanish as well as social media posts, animated science videos, and clips of pediatricians doling out the facts about vaccinations.
A major motivation for the AAP initiative is children returning to classrooms, just as COVID-19 case numbers among kids have increased more than fivefold between late July and late August.
According to AAP officials, there were 38,000 cases among children during the week ending July 22. That number jumped to 204,000 the week ending August 26, with more than 19,000 of those children requiring hospitalization.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the Pfizer vaccine in teens 16 and older and granted emergency use authorization (EUA) for children 12 to 15 years old.
AAP officials say vaccines for children 5 years old and up may be authorized soon, and clinical trials are underway in children as young as 6 months old.
“The COVID-19 Delta variant is increasingly infecting kids across the country, who now account for up to 1 in 5 cases,” Dr. Lee Benjamin, a pediatric emergency doctor for Envision Healthcare in Ann Arbor, Michigan, told Healthline.
“Sick children can transmit the virus to at-risk adults. Although most children with COVID-19 do well, developing only minor illness, the sheer number of pediatric cases means more kids are becoming ill, requiring hospitalization and even intensive care,” he said.
“Although not at the rates we see in adults, pediatric deaths do occur from COVID-19,” added Dr. Ilan Shapiro, the medical director of health education and wellness at AltaMed Health Service and a fellow at the AAP.
Source: healthline