As you may know, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, also called Comirnaty, was approved for children 5 to 11 years old on November 19. As your child’s Doctors and Physician Assistants, we strongly recommend that your child gets the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it becomes available to you.
We’d like to share some facts with you about the COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5-11, based on recent studies of the vaccine in children:
- The vaccine protects children from COVID-19: the vaccine was 90.7% effective.
- No serious side effects were seen. The most common side effects were those that often happen with other vaccines: pain where the needle was injected, tiredness, headache, muscle pain and chills.
- The dose for children is one-third of the adult dose. This dose was selected in part because it led to fewer side effects than the adult dose.
- The vaccine for children is two injections given at least 21 days apart, and ideally 8 weeks apart.
- The creation of this vaccine followed all required steps for the development of any vaccine.
The COVID-19 vaccine can play an important role in keeping community transmission low and preventing school closures, which in turn is important for your child’s mental and physical well-being.
We are learning more every day about the risks of COVID-19 for children. Some children who get COVID-19 – even those who are otherwise healthy – can end up in the hospital. Children who get COVID-19 can sometimes stay sick for many weeks or months – this is called Long COVID. We care about your child, and we don’t want them to get sick from COVID-19.
Vaccines work and they are a safe and important way to keep children healthy. We and our staff all got the COVID-19 vaccine to protect ourselves against COVID-19.
If you have any questions or concerns about the COVID-19 vaccine or protecting your child against COVID- 19, we are here to help and would be happy to discuss this with you. Please call the office to book an appointment. You can also refer to this fact sheet: “Is the COVID-19 vaccine safe for kids?”