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“Please involve your child in the decision making. Talk to your pediatrician and don’t rely on Google doctor for your information.
This was the advice to parents coming from Dr Jose Nunez regarding making informed decisions about vaccinating their children against the Covid-19 virus.
“We advise parents to have healthy discussions with your doctor, your healthcare professional. Don’t forget the child, especially those between 12 and 18 years old. In fact, watching the statements on TV from some of these teenagers, I’m quite impressed with the statement they made, some of them taking care and protecting their grandparents and so on. to. Sometimes I wonder if some of these kids are actually smarter than their parents.
Nunez, chief of pediatrics at San Fernando General Hospital, speaking at Wednesday’s Covid-19 press conference hosted by the Department of Health, urged parents to get vaccinated and get vaccinated also their children.
“As a pediatrician, we say that vaccination is our bread and butter. We live and breathe vaccines. We start vaccinating children as early as two months old, so this is something we are very aware of the benefits of vaccination.
Benefits of immunizing children
“The obvious advantage of having your child vaccinated is that they do not contract Covid. This is what everyone wants. “
He said the argument people would make is that children are less likely to get serious illness, which is true, fewer hospitalizations and fewer deaths.
He noted, however, that children can get Covid and they can get it very, very seriously, by developing a condition called multi-inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C).
The other thing to be aware of is the Delta variant which is having a very harmful effect on children in the United States. As recently as last week, the headlines read, ‘Pediatric hospitals in the United States are in. danger as Delta hits children ”.
Noting that fortunately Trinidad and Tobago is not yet in this situation, Nunez said: “We hope not to be in this situation. We hope this is the message we want to get across, that children get vaccinated, that adults, parents get vaccinated so that we don’t get into this situation, because believe me, when you hear Hospitals for kids in Dallas, Mississippi, being full of kids, having to open up more space is obviously a very serious problem and we hope it never gets to that.
Prevent transmission
Nunez said children are very, very good at sharing things, especially their germs.
“It is very common for children to be transmitters, that they transmit these infections. We also want children to be, if they are vaccinated you are reducing the spread of disease to all adults, their grandparents and teachers as well.
He said that when it comes to the oft-used term of herd immunity, part of that herd immunity must include children because they are part of the herd.
“If we are to achieve this collective immunity, we must also immunize children. We cannot forget them, they will be an important factor after we move with the adults and their parents and teachers. Vaccination of children will be part of the herd immunity approach. “
He said that the statement “children must go back to school” has been mentioned, but that it has a significant effect on the mental health of children and parents, and that it affects their education and social development by. terms of interactions they have. have at school.
“Children have to go back to school but more importantly they have to stay in school because we hear reports in other countries where they are opening schools and as soon as there is an epidemic a child gets Covid-19 in the classroom, panic breaks then the school is closed.
He said the way to avoid such a scenario was to have the children immunized.
“By analogy, most of the time, when I see children in my office come for the chickenpox vaccine, it’s because they have an outbreak at school and it creates panic. They come for their vaccines, but remember that vaccination is prevention and it takes you weeks to get your full immune response, so it doesn’t make sense to give them a vaccine while there is already an epidemic. So, we should look at this. People will be much more comfortable if the teachers as well as the students have had their vaccines so when there is a case of Covid in the classroom obviously you are looking for symptoms but the whole school does not close and the children do not. ‘will not be returned.
Nunez noted that getting children vaccinated also offers cross-protection to other children who for medical reasons cannot get vaccinated, so their colleagues and friends who receive the vaccine will also help them protect them. .
MIS-C and myocarditis risks
“The risk of myocarditis is very, very low. It is a self-limiting disease, which means that it would improve on its own and the children make a full recovery.
He said if all children between the ages of 12 and 18 were to be vaccinated, only about 10 of them would develop mild cases of myocarditis.
“Our advice to these children is to avoid strenuous exercise for at least a week after their vaccine, especially the second dose. This is more important for children who are very athletic and who really strain their hearts after their vaccine. Symptoms to watch out for would be chest pain, shortness of breath, or palpitations.
On the issue of MIS-C, Nunez said it is a disease that develops in some children, perhaps four to six weeks after being vaccinated.
“Some of them may be completely asymptomatic, but we know they had it because we’re actually looking for antibodies in their blood, and it comes back positive. So this is something some kids get after contracting Covid and the key presentations are fever, rash, red eyes and red mouth, but the key for the parent to stress is fever. If your child, after having Covid, starts to have a fever again, please see a doctor.
He said children who develop MIS-C usually require hospital treatment, but if it’s caught early, it’s something that can be treated.
“We are concerned about the possible long-term effect on the heart and the swelling of the arteries around the heart.
“If all children in Trinidad and Tobago from birth zero to 16 were to have Covid, we are talking about hundreds of children with MIS-C rather than reminding you of the small number, maybe 10 cases of myocarditis that we are going to see if all the children get their vaccine.
He noted that Covid itself can cause more serious complications as opposed to the very low incidence of vaccines.
Risks versus benefits
“When it comes to accepting a vaccine, it’s always about doing a risk-benefit assessment, and remembering that vaccines are for prevention.
“If we get a huge Delta outbreak and the hospitals are full, now is not the time to rush for vaccines.
“The vaccines are safe, we’ve said it over and over again, and they’re effective even against the Delta variant,” Nunez said.
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