ROSEVILLE, Calif. — On Thursday, Pfizer applied with the FDA to allow use of its COVID-19 vaccine on kids five to 11 years old. If regulators agree, shots could start in a matter of weeks.
Pfizer has already announced that a lower dose of its vaccine worked and appeared safe in young children. The FDA is scheduled to debate the evidence on Oct. 26.
Ryan Bleyle, a parent of a 5-year-old and 7-year-old in Roseville, is still mulling over the idea of getting his kids vaccinated.
"With kids, it's kind of a scary. It's a little bit scarier than an adult, like I'm done growing but my kids have a whole lot ahead of them," Bleyle said.
He and his wife are fully vaccinated, but he has some concerns with vaccinating his kids because they're still growing and developing.
"Who knows how that's going to affect their growth going forward, even if it's a short-term problem. I don't want to make my kids... be the guinea pig," he said.
Still, he wants life for his kids to get back to normal.
"I mean, last year was horrible with distance learning and not seeing their friends," Bleyle said.
Dr. Hakeem Adeniyi, medical director at the Sacramento Native American Health Center, said people should continue to ask questions.
"Obviously, we want to make sure that you feel comfortable with the decision that you make," Dr. Adeniyi said.
Dr. Adeniyi said the news from Pfizer is a big deal, because it means more than 20 million people around the country could soon be eligible for the vaccine.
"The vaccines have been extremely safe for children. The side effects that we are seeing with children tend to be very, very mild, maybe some aches, maybe some tenderness at the site of the injection, maybe a little headache," he said.
He said despite those minor, temporary side effects, there hasn't been any data to suggest that children would have any long term side effects from taking these vaccines.
"The vast majority of children do extremely well," Dr. Adeniyi said.
However, he said, where you can see long-term health effects, would come from contracting COVID-19 itself, something preventable with the vaccine.
"It gives us a lot of hope. We want our children to be protected. We don't want them to run into any issues with these vaccines, and there's nothing that we've seen that would make us believe that they would run into those issues," he said. "We're not to the end, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel."
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