Dr. Alejandro Hoberman, UPMC Children’s Community Pediatrics president, is pictured during a news conference Friday in Pittsburgh. Submitted photo

UPMC is ready to provide vaccines to some of its youngest patients, according to a panel of doctors who presented during a press conference in Pittsburgh. And many local parents are looking to get the vaccine for their children.

Dr. Alejandro Hoberman, UPMC Children’s Community Pediatrics president, said the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years old is here and the hospital system is “ready.”

“We have a lot of experience with this vaccine in adults and adolescents,” Hoberman said. “It has been thoroughly studied in young children and it showed the same outcome: it is safe and effective, and it will save lives. There have been 6.5 million cases of COVID in children of all ages in the United States and 750 deaths overall. in children 5 to 11 years, (there are) almost two million cases. Over 8,300 children have been hospitalized and over 5,000 children had multisystem inflammatory syndrome.”

Hoberman said children can have serious outcomes with COVID-19, and they can also transmit the virus to vulnerable family and community members who are at risk for severe outcomes.

“Seven hundred and fifty — some may say the rates are low, but in my eyes, it’s 750 too many,” he said. “Each one was a child who lost a long future and who left behind those who love them. We need to understand that this is now a vaccine-preventable disease like measles or polio and many other diseases that affect children. As a society, we must protect our children and the vaccine can do this.”

Carter Giglio, 8, joined by service dog Barney of Hero Dogs, shows off the bandaid over his injection site after being vaccinated at Children’s National Hospital in Washington. The U.S. enters a new phase in its COVID-19 vaccination campaign, with shots now available to millions of elementary-age children. AP photo

Hoberman said the as soon as the vaccinations were authorized for children, vaccinations began that same day. He added that over 10,000 vaccine appointments have already been scheduled.

“The majority of COVID-19 vaccines will be given at our pediatric practices,” he said. “This is because families and children are comfortable in these offices. Giving vaccines is what we do as pediatricians. Our pediatricians will answer all questions that parents have about the COVID-19 vaccine.”

PARENTS SHARE THOUGHTS

When asked about the newly available Pfizer vaccine, area parents and guardians provided varied answers. Some were firmly against vaccines for their children, while others were adamantly for them.

“When I told Parker that the vaccine was out, he smiled bigger than I’ve seen him smile in so long,” said Jamestown parent Liz Witherspoon. “He said he cannot wait. His anxiety toward COVID is awful and this vaccine is creating relief for him.”

Witherspoon’s family recently had a terrifying encounter with the COVID-19 virus, as her daughter tested positive during the summer and ended up being treated at Oishei Children’s Hospital in Buffalo.

Payge Olson, a local parent, said she has already scheduled her daughter’s vaccine.

“Working as a contact tracer for the state for the majority of this year has been eye-opening, especially now,” Olson said. “Just in the western region we’re averaging around 1,000 contacts per week (low estimate), and the majority of those are school-age kids. Our kids have missed so much school, and are continuing to miss it because of quarantine regulations that are in place to help mitigate the spread. We’re required to be vaccinated against many other contagious diseases to attend school in the first place, the COVID vaccine is no different. As someone who’s severely immune-compromised, if my daughter were to bring the virus home, it would kill me and likely her as well since she has immune system issues as well. I don’t want a simple vaccination to be the reason someone’s family member dies from this virus, we’ve lost too many already.”

Area resident Alisha Perry said she will most likely get her child vaccinated.

“I would like to do some more research, however, I view it as no different as getting the flu vaccine each year,” she said. “However, I do believe that it should remain up to the parents to decide, not the state.”

Shavonne Kruszynski said her family is “high-risk” and they have been waiting for the vaccine for months.

“After both Joe and I received it we started to have conversations with the kids’ doctors to see what would be the best course of action,” Kruszynski said. “One of their specialists put it this way for us — high-risk individuals who have been getting COVID are typically developing long hauler symptoms and those who get vaccinated have been reporting the known short-term symptoms but typically get over them in a few days. So when I think of my high-risk six-year-old and one year old the vaccine makes the most sense. Another specialist told us that if we vaccinate for everything else, this is no different.”

Julie Flaker said her child isn’t yet 5-years-old yet, but she will pursue getting a COVID-19 vaccine when he is.

“We vaccinate for so many other illnesses and successfully dull or completely avoid them, I will absolutely continue with that not only to keep him safe but to hopefully prevent him from being a carrier to other vulnerable people in our family and community,” Flaker said.

Maria Malmstrom said she supports getting her children vaccinated because she said her family doesn’t “want to take any risks with getting this and the awful consequences it might cause.”

“Also, we want to get rid of this virus in the same way as smallpox and polio was taken care of (measles was a good bit on the way), and don’t want to be the spreaders to others,” Malmstrom said. “It’s our responsibility.”

Tory Irgang said she signed up her child for a vaccine as soon as she could.

“I’m eager to protect her so her life can return to normal,” Irgang said.

Local parent and resident Toni Dunn said her son is 11 and will let him make the decision whether to get the vaccine or not.

“It is absolutely his choice if he wants to or not,” Dunn said. “But, he just tested positive for COVID yesterday, so we shall see his choice for the vaccine.”

SOME PARENTS UNSURE

Liz Aiken, another local parent, said she doesn’t believe there has been enough research on the vaccines for young children and the long-term risks they face.

“There is hard data to support that children are not statistically at high-risk of developing a serious disease,” Aiken said. “Of course there are outliers. There are in every age group for every disease. I am not willing to subject my children to medical treatment with unknown side effects to potentially protect them from something that has been proven to not adversely affect children that much. The vaccine in other countries has not been shown to slow spread … so making them take it to protect others is a moot point and invalid at this point. Therefore the only reason to make them take it would be for personal protection and in this case their risk is so low. That has been proven. I’ve done a thorough risk and benefit analysis for my family group and that is the conclusion I have come to based on data available and our circumstances.

Jami Raymond said she is “100 percent” against COVID-19 vaccines for her child.

“My kids have made it two years in a pandemic with basically normal lives,” Raymond said. “My 7-year-old knows there is one and nows she is forced to wear a mask to school and that mom wishes there was something she could do about it. No homeschooling is not an option in our case. My 5-year-old is failing school and hates school because of the masks and my 3-year-old doesn’t need to know what’s going on. I’ve never forced them to wear masks in public even in the middle of it. I feel (they are) my children and I should have a choice what goes in their bodies. Oh (by the way) my kids are happy and perfectly healthy humans! The only thing they have is seasonal allergies.”