COVID vaccines for kids are here—and necessary

As many of you have heard, COVID vaccination is now available to children ages 5–11. We have been listening to questions from parents and caregivers about getting their children vaccinated. I would like to share some of that information here.

One of the top concerns for parents is safety of the vaccine in children. COVID vaccines have undergone, and continue to undergo, the most intensive safety monitoring in U.S. history. Tens of thousands of volunteers have been involved in clinical trials for the vaccines. Before they received FDA emergency use authorization, the trials demonstrated that COVID vaccines are remarkably safe and effective. The vaccines have been given to nearly half of all 12- to 17-year-old children in the U.S. The vaccines continue to be monitored very closely.

Parents wonder about the benefit of getting their child vaccinated when COVID seems to be less severe in children. Even though the illness is mild for many children, kids are at risk, and we still do not know what leads to serious complications like multi-inflammatory syndrome or long COVID. Right now, because there is a high rate of transmission of COVID, there is a high incidence of COVID related complications in children. We are seeing more serious symptoms in children due to the delta variant. We continue to learn new things about COVID. Time will tell whether having COVID will result in long-term implications like we see in some other viruses. Vaccinating children helps keep them safe and healthy.