- [Jordan] We all knew that the Pfizer vaccine
at some point would be approved for children
and Akron Children's Hospital,
they've begun to offer the vaccine to its young patients
as young as five years old,
as who's now eligible for the vaccine.
Of course,
many people have concerns about the dosage amount,
the ages and other things.
And whether it's the same dose that I, as a grown adult,
a grown man who would receive.
Is a five or six year old child going to receive
that same dose?
Well,
to help us sort all of this out,
there's a lot to sort out as well.
We have Chief Medical Officer
at Akron Children's Hospital, Robert.
Dr. Robert McGregor on the line.
Thanks for coming on, doctor.
- [Robert] My pleasure. Happy to be here.
- [Jordan] Are you excited to finally be able
to offer this vaccine to the younger ages?
Are you guys seeing a slew of people
maybe signing up for the vaccine already?
- [Robert] Well,
we certainly are having some early adopters
and have had our vaccine appointments
full for the first couple
of days of vaccinating.
I'm personally very excited.
I think for a number of reasons.
The Delta variant really showed that kids are affected
and can be hospitalized,
require intensive care and even bypass
or ECMO is what the modality is called.
So that was really sobering.
The second round was really challenging for kids
and their families.
So the first message point
is that kids do get it
and can get very, very, very sick.
So that is avoidable now.
And that's, that's really exciting to me,
you know, as a pediatrician,
part of why I chose pediatrics is so that we could avoid
problems later with things like vaccines,
with exercising,
good diet and curbing obesity.
That's one of the things that drew me
is the public health aspect of pediatrics.
And now that we finally have a weapon that we can use,
that we know is effective,
at least in preventing hospitalization
and severe infections.
It's really an important day.
- [Jordan] And doctor, this is a smaller dosage, right?
This isn't the dose that you or I received
when we were vaccinated?
This one is smaller with a smaller needle for the children,
correct?
- [Robert] Correct. So it's, it's really,
it's even smaller than the teenagers got.
So it's roughly about a third of the dose
that you and I got.
And so we've color-coded it so that we know
that when we have children's show,
because for some of our clinics,
when we do some of the school-based clinics,
we need to make sure that we know
(laughs)
who's under 12
and who's over 12
and make sure that we have separate processes
for those kids.
- [Jordan] Okay. And Akron Children's,
they plan to offer the vaccine in schools?
Is that correct?
- [Robert] That is correct. So starting yesterday,
we made our appointments live for vaccination clinics
on the Akron campus and in our Mahoning Valley
Beeghly Campus of Akron Children's.
And then by mid-November,
we're expecting that we will offer the vaccine
at our community primary care sites
and then the urgent care locations,
which would be available to people that are,
are not necessarily part of the Akron Children's
primary care network.
And then we,
what we did with the older adolescents
is we've partnered with the school districts in the area
to really assist with school clinics.
And we plan to do that throughout
the fall and winter months.
- [Jordan] Okay.
Wow.
So do the parents have to be there at the schools or,
or is this something that, you know,
they can sign off on and then their child gets vaccinated
while they're in school?
- [Robert] Yes, they would.
They would sign a form knowing when the vaccine clinic
is going to occur and authorize,
give permission.
And then our school nurses have a,
we have a real, nice, robust school nurse program
that goes through all the checks and balances
to make sure that we do the right thing
for the right patients.
And so it's not something that a parent is going to
necessarily have to take off work to go get a vaccine.
- [Jordan] Okay.
And parents, they have busy schedules and a lot of them
are still trying to adjust to, you know,
being at work and not working from home anymore.
Side effects?
Children,
will they see some of the same side effects
that many of us got when we received our first
or second dose, the nausea,
the like extremely sore arm,
the fatigue?
Will children with this lower dose.
Are they going to see that?
Or is it going to be a little bit more vague for them?
- [Robert] Well,
the studies suggest that there's a similar rate
of side effects.
Clearly we knew when we'd lowered the dose,
there were fewer side effects.
And that was the concept there,
that not only do we lower the dose
and maybe mitigate some of the side effects,
but we do not blunt their immune response.
So that was important to know,
because if I'm going to give you a low dose,
that doesn't make you have side effects
and you don't get immune,
then we've not really,
we've defeated the purpose.
So it looks like the same things that we could have felt.
Fevers, achiness, headache,
and fatigue
can still follow.
And now we,
we do not recommend pre-medicating with Tylenol
or ibuprofen, but once children get the vaccine,
if they start to get symptoms,
there's no worry that giving ibuprofen or Tylenol
to make them tolerate the symptoms better
impacts the take of the vaccine.
So don't pre-medicate,
but after they'd had the vaccine,
it's okay to treat those symptoms.
- [Jordan] And doctor,
if someone wanted to get the vaccine for their child,
where's it currently offered?
How can they contact Akron Children's Hospital?
And when can they get it?
What's this timeframe look like?
I know that's a two or three-part question there.
So one at a time.
- [Robert] Okay.
Well, beginning yesterday,
they can make an online appointment
@akronchildrens.org/covidvaccine.
And that would be for the vaccination clinic sites
on Akron campus and Beeghly Campus.
So the schools are just starting to roll out their plans.
So it really depends on where your school district is.
I know our team has been called to a number
of the different schools yesterday.
So we will be working on that.
And I believe the different summit county is going to help
with some drive-through opportunities.
So I would check your local county,
your local school district,
and certainly Akron Children's has the vaccine.
We expect to get our shipment in
for the primary care offices in the next week or two.
We have some now,
and that's why we've got vaccine clinics running,
but we expect to get more in since this is, right now,
at Pfizer.
- [Jordan] Can you tell us lastly,
and I know you gotta go.
We gotta go.
Can you tell us about how many people are signed up?
How many doses you guys anticipate to give to children?
- [Robert] I'll be honest with you, Jordan.
I have not been on the site today
to see how many appointments were in there,
but, you know,
we were able to do hundreds of vaccines
when we did the teenagers.
This'll probably be a little slower
because toddlers aren't going to be moving quite as fast
or not toddlers but five to seven year olds
may have a little more reluctance
so I can get those numbers and get back to you
and tell you what our average booking is.
But I don't have that today
since it has just went live yesterday.
- [Jordan] Can we ever expect under five years old
to get the vaccine?
Or are we going to just wait and see how this pans out
for the vaccine for children from five to 11?
- [Robert] Well,
there are some studies that include as low as six months.
I've not seen any of those preliminary results.
And I think the younger the child,
the more data the CDC is going to require
before they would release it.
But I won't say never.
It's not going to be any time
in the real near future though.
- [Jordan] Okay.
Well, Dr. Robert McGregor with Akron Children's Hospital,
Chief Medical Officer.
Thank you so much for taking the time
out of your morning to join us.
- [Robert] Absolutely my pleasure.