Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service

Here’s What To Know About COVID-19 Vaccines for Young Children

Public health officials, pediatricians encourage vaccinations for children six months old and up.

Children 6 months to 5 years old can now receive the COVID-19 vaccine. NNS file photo by Sue Vliet.

Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, approved COVID-19 vaccines for children ages 6 months to 5 years old.

Now the Milwaukee Health Department and the 16th Street Community Health Centers are actively inviting families to bring in their children in that age group for the vaccine – the city Health Department on a walk-in basis and Sixteenth Street primarily by appointment.

The same questions that confronted the age groups for whom the vaccines were already available are being raised. These go beyond where your child can get the vaccine to should your child be vaccinated.

And the short answer is: Yes.

Just like the vaccines made available for the older groups, they should do so because these newer vaccines are safe, effective and keep the vaccinated COVID-free, medical experts say.

But there’s another reason: For the moment, these vaccines are free.

“That’s not likely to last indefinitely,” said Dr. Heather Paradis, a pediatrician and the Health Department’s chief medical officer and deputy commissioner of medical services for the city.

Why are the vaccines free at the moment? The CDC explains, “Vaccines were paid for with taxpayer dollars and will be given free of charge to all people living in the United States, regardless of insurance or immigration status.”

That means that there is a window of opportunity, said Paradis, particularly “for people who are uninsured or underinsured (and) who don’t want to receive a medical bill.”

But that’s just the financial reason. The other compelling reasons to get the vaccine involve the health and safety of individuals and, consequently, the entire community.

This is a point stressed by both Paradis and Dr. Marcos De La Cruz, director of pediatrics at Sixteenth Street.

“It’s the same idea we’ve had in the past. … The sooner we can provide protection, it’s the best for them,” said De La Cruz.

It’s not just about self-protection for the child. It’s about prevention generally.

“Children don’t always display the symptoms, but they can spread the disease,” De La Cruz said.

Paradis echoes this.

“We know vaccinating this age group will help to decrease transmission and the severity of the illness,” she said.

That means, she added, fewer days of missed day care for the children, fewer school days lost for siblings they’ve exposed and fewer lost workdays for parents with sick children. In particular, vaccinating this younger age group represents protection for family members who are more susceptible to severe symptoms, especially grandparents.

The notion that young children need not be vaccinated because they are not susceptible is simply not true.

Both Paradis and De La Cruz say they’ve come across COVID diagnosis for children in the 6 months to 5-year age group.

And there’s this: Just as with older children and adults, “long COVID” represents a still not fully understood threat.

Long COVID, also known as post-COVID conditions, refers to the long-term effects that some infected with COVID can experience.

Paradis said children can also have longer-term effects such as fatigue and difficulty concentrating. The loss of taste or smell may last longer.

For some families, the CDC approval of COVID vaccines for this last age group was a long time coming. That was, no doubt, frustrating, but there is a silver lining.

“We’ve gotten so much experience (with vaccines) over almost two years (of the pandemic),” said De La Cruz.

He explained that vaccines are usually rolled out and the medical community learns about their efficacy over six to 12 months. But we’ve had almost two years to see the efficacy of vaccines, and this longer rollout allowed more study on this newest vaccine in particular for the children in this age group.

As with many ailments, treatment for severe COVID symptoms will differ from age group to age group. This extra time allowed the vaccine manufacturers to study the effects more fully for this youngest age group to minimize side effects or longer-term symptoms and to avoid hospitalizations.

“We know children are not just little adults,” Paradis said. “Many of these medicines and treatments are for older children and adults.”

The CDC approved the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID 19 vaccine for children. The Moderna vaccine will require two doses, the Pfizer is a three-dose series. No booster for this age group has yet been approved.

For information on where to get the free vaccine for children on a walk-in basis, go to the Milwaukee Health Department website.

Go to the 16th Street Community Health Centers’ website for information on vaccines– on an appointment basis.

To find other vaccine sites, go to healthymke.org.

If someone should try to charge you for a COVID vaccine, contact the Wisconsin Department of Health Services at 844-684-1064 or email DHSCovidVaccinePublic@wi.gov. This number and email address allows consumers to file complaints and ask questions about vaccine pricing.

What you need to know now that kids can get vaccinated was originally published by Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service.

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2 thoughts on “Here’s What To Know About COVID-19 Vaccines for Young Children”

  1. hillard says:

    Our son is getting his shot tomorrow. It’ll be a relief to know he’s better protected.

  2. marty.ellenbecker@gmail.com says:

    Re: “What you need to know now that kids can get vaccinated”

    This comment is not meant to be brutal – I’m a former Fauci and CDC fan. But the NNS readership includes many people with especially critical and often unmet need for full and accurate health information. To keep this short, I won’t be citing every source for statements made, but I will provide 4 (of many) excellent and varied information sources at the end of this message.

    The approval to inject infants and young children is NOT being given in their interest. As of June 23, 2022, we are the only country doing this. So with all due respect,
    – and maybe the blessing of Edward R Murrow –

    Let’s take apart just this one sentence –
    Just like the vaccines made available for the
    older groups,(1)
    they should (2)
    do so because these newer vaccines are safe, effective and keep the vaccinated COVID-free, (3)
    medical experts say. (4)

    1) Read and weep over the (underreported) VAERS numbers, and the corresponding rise of non-Covid deaths, especially from causes that were once low or rare (before the “vaccines”) and not in the patient’s history or susceptibility.
    2) No they shouldn’t.
    3) Who left this non-sequitur here? Look up percentages of effectiveness (including negative) in all age groups for these injections & boosters and the duration of the protection. Note also the re-infections and rogue spike protein damage.
    4) Which medical experts? What are they citing?
    Real experts knew that most children already have natural immunity, overcome it quickly if not, and the hospitalization rate is near 0. The extended immune suppression and other dangers from the “not-gonna-stay-in-your-system” spike protein are greater than the disease itself, and this age group will live with those effects longest.

    So who benefits?
    (From Dr. Joseph Mercola
    June 28 2022 in The Defender) –

    “Big Pharma Desperate to Get COVID Shots on Childhood Schedule Before ‘Emergency’ Ends”

    (From) Story at a glance:
    The drug companies need this last remaining age group to be included under the EUA, because once the emergency is finally declared “over,” the next phase of liability shielding requires that the shots receive approval by the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Once the vaccine is on the childhood vaccination schedule, the vaccine makers are permanently shielded from liability for injuries and deaths that occur in any age group, including adults.
    Read it here-
    childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/big-pharma-covid-vaccine-child-immunization-schedule-cola/

    By the way, informed doctors will tell you that vaccines are useless against a fast-evolving disease like COVID. [but so profitable when it evolves]

    Here are 4 good sources of information:
    The 1st is FLCCC – Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance, (covid19criticalcare.com) possibly the 1st and certainly the biggest group of COVID patient advocacy doctors – originally formed in disgust of the early protocol for Covid –
    Stay home without treatment until you cannot breathe, then go to the emergency room.
    [But cheer up, “vaccines” will come.]

    The 2nd is Dr. Jessica Rose, Independent Consultant She has 5 degrees in specialties that make her someone that Pfizer and Moderna would not want to meet in a dark alley or courtroom. (a list is at the end of this letter). She examines, analyzes, interprets, distills and explains studies from medical and government agencies both US and foreign. You will find her style is sometimes ‘informal’. I’m including her because she reports – in full detail – her findings in the vocabulary of the professions, (as well as a decent amount of plain English) using official data and charts so that any skeptic could take them to their favorite immunologist for clarification/verification.

    She publishes her work as “Unacceptable Jessica” on both her website and Substack.com.

    3) Dr. John Campbell,PhD (UK) – on YouTube
    This much respected, mostly retired, nursing teacher has produced dozens of nursing training videos. He now produces videos on other topics especially COVID. He was pro-vaccine until March 9, 2022 when he dug into a particular official document that changed his mind and his trust. (The ADVERSE EVENTS OF SPECIAL INTEREST (AESI) document (aka the “5.3.6 document”). He, like Dr. Rose examines, analyzes, interprets and distills studies from medical reports, but using means and terms for a non-medical viewer.
    Dr Campbell explains in the video below how the new Pfizer pill copies 1 trick from Ivermectin, but not it’s other 5 anti-COVID mechanisms, resulting in an inferior and dangerous medicine.
    [But so profitable.]

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufy2AweXRkc&ab_channel=Dr.JohnCampbell

    Here’s a similar article which contains the same video, it’s illustrations, and a printout of his closed captions, but with the video’s transcription errors corrected.
    centerforneurologyandspine.com/ivermectin-and-emerging-oral-covid-19-treatments/

    4) Stephanie Brail – Medical Reporter – Writes
    “Wholistic” on Substack.com

    Be extremely careful of what gets presented on this topic. Lives old, new, and yet-to-be depend on it.

    Marty Ellenbecker

    Dr Jessica Rose – Degrees
    – Bachelor’s Degree in Applied Mathematics
    from Memorial University of Newfoundland
    – Master’s degree in Immunology
    from Memorial University of Newfoundland
    – PhD in Computational Biology
    from Bar Ilan University
    and 2 Post Doctoral degrees:
    – Molecular Biology
    from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
    – Biochemistry from the Technion

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