Answering Parents’ Pressing Questions About The COVID Vaccine For Young Children

Over the course of the pandemic, many parents have been anxiously waiting for the opportunity to vaccinate their children. However, now that there is a vaccine available, many have questions about vaccine safety and efficacy. To help answer some of those questions, we hosted a virtual conversation with Dr. Robyn Riseberg, founder of Boston Community Pediatrics, on the newly-available COVID-19 vaccine for children 0 to 4 years old. 

Below are Dr. Riseberg’s answers to questions submitted directly from parents about the COVID vaccine for kids.

Q: Is there a benefit to Pfizer versus Moderna? It seems like a big difference with the efficacy. 

A: There appears to be a difference in efficacy between the two, although there were less kids in the Pfizer trial so there were smaller numbers. The bottom line is that with Moderna, there’s a shorter time to when you’re considered fully vaccinated. There are only two vaccines – four weeks apart – so after six weeks, you’ll essentially be fully vaccinated. With Pfizer, there are three vaccines. It takes 11 weeks to get through all three, so in about 13 weeks, you’d be fully vaccinated. Ultimately, they’re both effective and they’re both going to protect people. Some pediatric offices are going to have Moderna, some are going to have Pfizer, most are not going to have both, so as long as you’re getting one that’s what’s most important.  

Q: Is there anything to do with someone’s blood type that makes them more or less likely to get COVID or to get very sick from it?

A: I don't think we have the full answer to that yet. There are some people who reacted differently to COVID. Some people were in a house where three people had COVID and one person never got it and we don't know why. We certainly know that if you have pre-existing conditions or health concerns or you’re immunocompromised, you’re more likely to be sicker, but otherwise I’m not aware of our blood type being a reason.

Q: Is there any significant benefit to continuing masking for younger children and educators in schools or child care once a large percentage of students have been vaccinated?

A: For older kids, school systems initially said 80% of kids needed to be vaccinated before they would drop masks and then slowly as more people became vaccinated and as people, frankly, got sick of masking, a lot of the mask mandates for the older kids went away. I imagine that over time that will happen for the younger kids. I think masks are still effective. In my office, we mask all day, every day and I’m not sure when we’ll take that away. It protects you, not only from COVID but from the flu and other viruses that we’re being exposed to all day long. I do think from a development perspective, at some point, we’re going to be able to take masks off for child care settings. When exactly that is and what the number of kids vaccinated is, that’s more of an individual centered decision and a public health decision. 

Q: Babies get so many vaccinations in their first 18 months. Do you have any recommendations on how to include the COVID vaccine in that sort of protocol of vaccination? In terms of spacing them out between other necessary vaccinations. 

A: What we have to work off of is the flu vaccine. It’s always included in that first year and depending on when the child’s born, it may be earlier or later in the year. The majority of the vaccines are given at two, four, and six months. At six months, I’m often giving kids all their routine childhood vaccinations, plus the flu, so if I did all of their routine childhood vaccinations, plus COVID, it’s very similar. I would have no problem doing that or recommending that. In fact, that is the recommendation – to give them the COVID vaccine along with the other vaccines that are due for the next six months or even year. 

Q: Do we know if there are any long-term side effects from this vaccine? And what do we know about the long-term effects of not getting it?

A: That is one of the things I spend a lot of time talking to families about, and I think everyone’s questions and concerns are important. I understand that everyone is coming at this from a different perspective. The long-term effects of COVID are unknown, and we don’t know how long they’re going to last. But we do know, as of now, that there aren’t any long-term effects of the vaccines. It’s the same vaccine that adults and kids are getting, it’s just a smaller dose. 

Q: My child recently had COVID. Should we wait to give her the vaccine?

A: There are a few different schools of thought around that. There are some people that say, as long as they fully recover, you absolutely can get the vaccine. There are other people who say, “well, I have natural immunity for three months, so maybe I’ll get it towards the end of that three months.” Both of those are reasonable approaches. I don’t think there’s a hard and fast one or the other. If you were looking for a little bit of extra protection right now, then you could get the vaccine. If you wanted to wait a few more months, then that would be fine as well. 

Q: For the Pfizer vaccination, is there any immunity after the second dose? Or is it not until the third dose that your child will have immunity?

A: The data that I’ve seen shows that most of the immunity came after the third dose. 

Q: What is COVID vaccination going to look like year after year? Will it be like the flu shot? What’s our new normal when it comes to this?

A: I imagine it will become like the flu. It is a virus like influenza, so I imagine we’ll be getting a COVID shot every year and a flu shot every year. And I’m thrilled with that, frankly. If I can get a vaccine every year that makes me feel comfortable going out in the world, working in the medical community, taking care of people, keeping people safe –  that is excellent to me. 

Q: What should we do, from your perspective as a pediatrician, to protect our children? 

A: Getting the vaccine for yourself and children is the best thing you can do to not only protect yourself

and your family, but your entire community. If you feel nervous about vaccinating your kids, talk to your trusted resources. Look at the CDC website, look at the FDA website. Look for people who have spent a lot of time and a lot of energy and expertise. These advisory committees are filled with the smartest people in this country around vaccine effectiveness and vaccine safety. 

It may seem really scary but I think that when people finally actually vaccinate their little kids, they’re going to feel a sense of relief. And if you’re not ready yet, keep asking your questions and keep talking to those trusted people, keep looking at the trusted websites until you do feel comfortable. 

To learn more about vaccinations for young kids, watch the full Q&A with Dr. Riseberg’s here.