This weekend, the CDC advisory panel is expected to
decide whether to authorize Moderna and Pfizer's Covid
19 vaccine for Children six months to six years old for
emergency use and if they give it the green light, the
shots could begin as soon as Tuesday. According to the
American Academy of Pediatrics. More than 13.5 million
Children have tested positive for COVID since the
beginning of the pandemic and it's led to nearly 500
deaths just this year. There have been almost 5.7
million pediatric covid cases. So let's break it all
down now joining us here on morning rush Dr William
Schaffner, a loyal and loving friend of Newsy We
appreciate that sir as always disease specialist at th
Vanderbilt School of Medicine and a CDC advisor as
well. Doctor thanks for sharing some time with this
early on this Friday morning. We appreciate it. Good to
be with you rob. So listen for folks like me who have
young kids at home who are very excited by this news.
It seems like this is on the track like others have
been in terms of it will get the green light in the
next few days here. Is there any um cautionary though
advice you would give about parents rushing to get this
or can we all just go out and get it the trials
improvement so successful. There should be no
hesitation in terms of I want the shot but I don't want
my kid to go first. Well Rob the C. D. C. S advisory
committee will meet today and tomorrow and vote. We
anticipate that the vote will be positive at the
American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Academy
of Family Physicians. You know those are the doctors
who take care of all those Children across the count
there I think going to be equally in favor of this and
so the recommendation will be, I anticipate that
Children six months to five years of age should now be
vaccinated. And surveys would indicate that about 1/5
of patient of parents one out of five will be taking
their kids in very very promptly they've been wait
for this. Then there's a larger group of parents who
still have questions are a little bit more cautious,
have a wait and see attitude and of course our
recommendation to them always is talk to that
pediatrician who takes care of your Children, talk to
that family doctor, they can answer your questions and
dr Schaffner, let's talk about what the panel has been
looking at throughout the past year. Pfizer and Moderna
have kind of had different recommendations uh fo
specific age group. Are there any differences between
the two vaccines for the for those younger kids, there
are Lindsay the fighter vaccine is now a three dose
series. The Moderna vaccine is a two dose series. So
there is a distinction between the two but they'll get
you to the same place protection particularly a
serious disease and those consequences of COVID Long
covid symptoms as well as the multi system inflammator
syndrome in Children which can be a consequence of
COVID also and just talk about the milestone that we're
about to reach because once this gets the green light
and certainly as you just said, all indications are
that that will be there in a few days now literally
every American no matter the age is um eligible to get
a vaccine. That is a major milestone As we still
wrestle with this pandemic it is quite a moment
addition to the kids getting the shot, just the bigger
picture is impressive as well. We all can get one. The
more you talk about it, rob the more my smile gets
wide. Absolutely I'm very excit about this and all my
colleagues in public health and infectious diseases are
smiling also. Now this is anticipation of the C. D. C.
S. Recommendation but I think it's going to be a
positive recommendation. It's a big day, the entire
country's population older than six months of age would
be eligible for vaccine and we hope that everyone
everyone takes advantage of it and just quickly when it
comes to side effects. I know you know some people have
them, some don't with kids who are nonverbal perhaps it
might be a little more complicated of a situation. Wha
should parents expect when it comes to the side
effects. Is it sore arm fever. What should they expect?
Well with any vaccine that we give in infancy. Of
course there are some side effects. There could be a
sore arm redness, a little bit of swelling and indeed
some Children develop a little bit of fever for a day
or two. But those side effects are entirely within the
spectrum that we see with any vaccine that we give to
Children. So parents are used to that. And certainly
pediatricians and family doctor are used to it also.
Okay. And we will see uh in a few weeks again how many
parents take advantage of this now being available?
We've had our vaccine troubles in this country. So it
will be interesting to see what those first round of
numbers look like in terms of the percentage of
Children that Adrian actually get the shot and of
course that's a parental decision. So that would be
fascinating to keep an eye on DR William Schaffner, an
infectious disease specialist at the venerable School
of Medicine as always. Thanks for your time sir. We
appreciate it. Have a good weekend. Thank you. You too.