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Chii Lewis said that long before COVID-19 vaccinations were available for children 5 and under, family members were urging her to have her son, Isaiah, get the shot. But she was not fully on board.
“I was more nervous than my husband,” she said before her 3-year-old got his first injection Thursday. “I know it’s safer for him to be vaccinated than not.”
While there was some crying after getting jabbed with the first of three shots spread out over 11 weeks, Chii and her husband, Trevell, were there with Isaiah at an Advocate Aurora Health pediatric clinic in Evergreen Park. In no time, the boy acted as if nothing had happened, with an “I got mine” sticker affixed to his shirt.
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As vaccinations are now available for children 6 months to 5 years, health care professionals in the south and southwest suburbs say they are fielding questions about the safety and effectiveness of the shots.
Following clearance from the Food and Drug Administration and then the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, vaccines became available for order by health care providers June 18, and the Evergreen Park site began administering shots June 21.
Dr. Markeita Moore, Isaiah’s pediatrician, said she is mostly asked about how new the vaccine is, possible side effects and its effectiveness.
The Pfizer vaccine has a gap of 21 days between the first and second dose then a third shot coming eight weeks after the second injection, she said. Plans call for also offering the Moderna vaccine for young children. The Pfizer vaccines effectiveness is a bit more than 80%, Moore said.
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Potential side effects are similar to those experienced by adults, including soreness at the injection site, fatigue and fever. Moore said the side effects tend to be more pronounced after the second dose.
Moore said while vaccinated children can still become infected with COVID-19, they’re much less likely to get severely ill if they have been vaccinated.
“With the summer time we tend to forget there is still COVID out there,” Moore said. “With the vaccination, there is an extra layer of protection that would give them less of a chance of getting COVID.”
Delovely Jackson is a nurse practitioner at the Olympia Fields location of Specialty Physicians of Illinois, where vaccinations are now offered to children 5 and older, but tentatively plans are to expand that to younger children on July 11.
“We have had multiple calls from parents even before it was approved,” she said.
Jackson said that some parents want to hold off and see the results with other young children before committing to the shot, and may wait until closer to the start of the school year.
“They don’t want to be guinea pigs,” she said.
The Cook County Department of Public Health said it expects many parents seeking the vaccination for their child will go to their pediatrician, but that the health system offers options including mobile vaccination clinics at events, churches and schools.
Mobile vaccination clinics began inoculating children 6 months through 4 years the week of June 20, according to a spokesman.
Chii Lewis said her aunt is a pediatrician in Ohio and she has an uncle who is a surgeon in California, and both urged her to have Isaiah vaccinated as soon as shots were available for younger children.
“This was even before my husband and I could be vaccinated,” she said.
Lewis, who lives in Chicago’s Beverly community, said she was still hesitant, but became convinced it was the right move after consulting with others, including Moore.
She said she was grateful for her pediatrician’s guidance in the matter.
“She is amazing,” Lewis said. “With all of the questions I had, even with the medical professionals in my family, we wanted to speak with his pediatrician.”
Lewis said she chose to share her story and allow photos of Isaiah receiving the vaccination as a way of encouraging other families to get their youngsters vaccinated.
“If there is any way we can help other families to do the same, we will,” she said.
Moore, a pediatrician for nearly 10 years, said she has two sons, 8 and 6, who were vaccinated late last year.
While the children’s vaccine requires multiple doses, she said that, for parents at least, it’s not a big deal to add a few more injections.
“They are used to the childhood vaccinations at that age,” Moore said.
Daily Southtown
In mid June, just before the FDA and CDC approval of the vaccines for younger children, the Chicagoland Children’s Health Alliance was encouraging families to consider having children vaccinated once doses became available.
The alliance includes Advocate Children’s Hospital, the department of pediatrics at NorthShore University HealthSystem and the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children’s Hospital.
“We know parents of many young children have been anxiously awaiting this moment, which will finally allow entire families to be afforded the additional layer of protection that COVID-19 vaccination provides,” the alliance said in a June 16 statement.
The alliance noted that while children have often fared better than adults when it comes to COVID-19, many children have also faced severe side effects from this virus, including long COVID and Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children, or MIS-C.
According to the CDC, MIS-C is a condition where different body parts can become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes or gastrointestinal organs.
While it is not known what causes the condition, data has shown that many children with MIS-C had the virus that causes COVID-19 or had been exposed to someone with the virus, according to the CDC.
mnolan@tribpub.com