antibiotics during the early
stages of COVID.
>> Well, the first day of
school will be here before we know it with the pandemic
know it with the pandemic
disrupting annual preventive
health visits. Childhood
vaccination rates have been
on the decline. And now the
number of kids with required shots nationwide is falling
shots nationwide is falling
below herd immunity. Joining us
this morning to discuss family
physician, Doctor Christopher
Scuderi with the importance of
getting your kids up to date.
But adding vaccines to your back-to-school checklist
back-to-school checklist
artist. Very good morning.
Thanks for being with us.
Thank you so much for us to
make. Absolutely I let’s jump
right in here. Why is it so
important for parents to follow
the child’s immunization schedules and ensure their up
schedules and ensure their up
today before heading back to
school in the fall.
>> So there’s a few things that
parents should remember.
The first says now is the best
time to make sure that your child is up
child is up
to be on there. Recommended
vaccinations is a family
physician concerned that a
number of children around the
country may have missed their
well. Child visits to the COVID-19 pandemic. And as a
COVID-19 pandemic. And as a
consequence of this state maybe
fall behind on their
immunizations in Syria. One
thing I want to stress to
parents today is childhood immunizations, one of the most
immunizations, one of the most
impactful life saving measures
in medical history. If you look
over the past 20 years alone,
it’s estimated that childhood
vaccines have saved the lives
of 37 million children across
the globe. And so it’s really
important that parents do
everything they can to protect
the children going to school
year.
>> Doctor, let’s talk about the
phrase herd immunity. Remind
us why getting to that point is
so important.
>> So Herman is a concept that
we’ve heard a the COVID-19
pandemic. And so to break it
down from viewers, herd
immunity occurs when a large
portion of the community
becomes immune to specific
disease. And this makes us from
the disease from person to
person unlikely why this
concept is important is if the local community and that may
local community and that may
drop just one percent lower
than the threshold needed for
herd immunity. Second here,
risk of a devastating disease
outbreak. In a great example.
This United States is measles.
In the year 2000 measles was
declared eliminated United
States. In 2019, we had over
1200 cases of measles over 31
states. And so it’s important to remember that these diseases
to remember that these diseases
are still occurring in other
parts of the world. It’s
important that we do all we can
to improve herd immunity here
in the United States.
>> And time line wise, if we want our kids fully vax by the
want our kids fully vax by the
first day of school this fall,
when do we need to have been
immunized by? Can you break
that down for us?
>> And so as a parent, I would encourage you to do it. Now.
encourage you to do it. Now.
I know some rate. It’s busy and
it seems like schools far away.
But it’s just right around the
corner. And there’s a couple
reasons why this is important.
One, is that the weeks right
before school starts to be some
of the busiest and physician office and say you want to make
office and say you want to make
sure that your child is able to
get in the second. Is that a
number of vaccines that we give
are given in Syria. So it may take a few weeks to get the
take a few weeks to get the
vaccines may also take time to
develop the community. The 3rd
is a great opportunity for
anyone listening that has heat
Concerns about vaccine system
saw some time to talk to your family physician about that
family physician about that
one of the most rewarding part
of my job is talking to parents
and to patients that have
concerns and how to walk him
through it and making sure
we’re doing what’s best for
them.
>> What are some of the biggest concerns you hear from parents?
concerns you hear from parents?
What are the most concerned
about?
>> You know, the concern about
safety, long-term safety of
these these vaccines. And so, you know, we just want to look
you know, we just want to look
through, you know, with
parents, the process that we
used to develop these vaccines,
the trials that were used in
making sure parents understand
that they are seeing an
effective been. So a lot of times it just takes going
times it just takes going
through the data and making
sure patients parents are
comfortable with that. Yeah,
absolutely. No. Children ages
6 months and older.
>> Now eligible for the vaccine? How do the doses and
vaccine? How do the doses and
advocacy numbers measure up
across age groups?
>> So the Pfizer or MODERNA vaccines were both recently
vaccines were both recently
improved for children 6 months
ago. There’s a couple key
differences between the 2.
I want to stress for parents. The moderna vaccine is E 2 dose
The moderna vaccine is E 2 dose
vaccine. It’s spread out
amongst for weeks. The Pfizer
vaccine is a three-dose vaccine
to get a result. Those 3 weeks
later get the second dose.
And then the weeks after the
second issue get the 30 S. And so it’s important for
And so it’s important for
parents to remember that that
3rd, this is not a booster.
It’s part of the primary
vaccination series and the kids
need all 3 doses to be fully
vaccinated. One of the things I’m encouraged parents to know
I’m encouraged parents to know
is that these vaccines are
fractions of the adult vaccine
they were designed to really
minimize side effects in this
age range. The only thing I want to encourage parents to
want to encourage parents to
visit, they have a child at
home that I’ve been up and it’s
been 5 months since it had
original COVID-19 vaccination
serious. They’re due for
release to recommend that they get that. Okay. Excellent.
get that. Okay. Excellent.
Where can folks go for more
information on this?
>> Resources when your family
physician is therefore
considered different? Ask
questions. And second, there’s a terrific Web site and family
a terrific Web site and family
doctor Dot org, slash vaccines.
It’s got great information.
I became access any time.
>> We really appreciate the
time. All the information.