Michigan hospitals say they’re ready to administer the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to children between 12-15 once they get the final green light.
It comes as hospitals continue to see young COVID-19 patients.
“As we have seen a decline in our numbers in this most recent surge across the state, we have seen a really steady number of both pediatric admissions and ICU admission so our critical care units and intensive care units, both here in northern Michigan and across the state are still having a high census, they are still pretty full with patients,” said Dr. Christine Nefcy, Chief Medical Officer at Munson Healthcare.
The Pfizer vaccine was shown to be 100% effective in preventing COVID-19 infections in 12-15 year olds, and children in that age group will need a parent’s permission before getting the shot.
Hospitals say getting this younger age group vaccinated is a big step.
“The more we allowed SARS-CoV2 to go through populations of people and make copies of itself and mutate the more likely that we are going to need more vaccines to combat the virus in the future,” said Dr Rosemary Olivero, Pediatric Infectious Disease Physician, Spectrum Health.
Something they say vaccinations can help avoid.
“If we allow the virus to continue to replicate, uncontrollably in certain populations of people more variants are going to be spilled out, and our concern is at some point in time a variant could completely have the ability to escape vaccine induced immunity and that’s the last thing we want,” said Dr. Liam Sullivan, Infectious Disease Specialist, Spectrum Health.
© 2023 - 910 Media Group
