Poll - Will your kids get the Covid vaccine?

[TheFloatingBear]

In reading all of these threads, I think it helps to remember that people are making these decisions in context, especially in terms of calculating risk to benefit ratios. Coming from a hard hit area where in particular school and extra-curricular activities have been greatly impacted, it's hard for me to fathom areas with few/no cases. I mentioned an outbreak my kids' school had in April - about 45 kids were diagnosed with Covid, about 40+ in high school and then some younger siblings. There were many cases of kids bringing the virus home and impacting more vulnerable adults - as well as generally impacting adults/siblings that needed to quarantine, etc. This is not an abstract for me, these are people that I know. There were only 300 kids in the school at the time (the rest full remote) - my son being one of them due to his IEP, and he has a history of asthma - so not great odds. Definitely some of the people/kids I know that have had long term issues from last spring are people with immune system issues, however again that's another reason to strive for herd immunity, to protect others.

In any case, it would more helpful to productive dialogue if people who don't want to be judged also don't make sweeping statements of disbelief about others' experiences.

In other news related to this topic, I just got a letter from the school district talking about my question in my earlier post about vaccinated kids and quarantine. It acknowledged that you can still get Covid after being vaccinated so self monitoring, etc., but indicated that if you choose to share your child's vaccination status, your child will not need to leave school even if they are identified as a close contact and they will not miss sports or other extra-curricular activities related to school unless they become symptomatic.

I thought this week's covid letter was the usual one or two students, but now I'm guessing it's bigger. Just heard from my daughter's dance studio and it needed to close, so there must be some connection. No dress rehearsal for the recital, and recital in doubt. Not the worst thing in the world but unfortunate

 

[nene0182]

My son turned 18 last week. He has his second shot on Friday. We let him choose if he wanted it or not since he was pretty much an “adult” They actually ran a vaccination clinic at his school for students 16+ so it was super easy to get it done.

 

[PezRuth]

My son turned 18 last week. He has his second shot on Friday. We let him choose if he wanted it or not since he was pretty much an “adult” They actually ran a vaccination clinic at his school for students 16+ so it was super easy to get it done.

That is wonderful that they did that with the clinic at the school. We are trying to get that set up here

 

[E&Cmom]

My eldest is almost 18 and is registered for hers but her booking period is not yet. My 14 year old will get hers when the time comes.

 

[NYCgrrl]

My kids are old enough to make their own decisions so no worries there. DGD will get her vaccine as soon as it’s available.

 

[sk!mom]

My kids are adults and we’re both fully vaccinated at their earliest opportunity. DD24 was last since her age kept her from being eligible until last month. She made her appointment on the day Texas opened it to all and had the first dose that week.

my 15 year old nephew is thrilled with this news as he is the last in his family of 4. He will get it ASAP.

 

[Kitty 34]

My oldest just got his 2nd shot today which merited a phone call from him as he had to drive down town to Detroit to get it. Quicken Loans (his employer) was putting it on at one of the big venues down there for their employees (IF they wanted). He's turning 41 so Mama had really no say one way or another.

Middle DS and wife got both of theirs over a month ago.

Youngest DS and wife (both 32) have opted out. Again not up to Mama one way or another.

Love 'em all regardless of their vaccine choice.

 

[china mom]

my kids 16 & 18 have both had both doses but my answer would still be yes if they were younger.

 

[mamamary]

Mine did but they are older. If they were young I’m sure I’d get them vaccinated.

 

[neverlandsky]

Most likely. Colleges are starting to require them for the 21 Fall Term. Youngest said they wanted it. Oldest is meh.

 

[JLTraveling]

You've asked the right question, so I hope you follow through on your own research. If there were only six reported blood clots out of 7 million J&J vaccines, why would they stop the rollout? Before you mimic "abundance of caution", research. Independent research, which means you're going to have read medical papers, not snopes.com. What kind of blood clots were they, and how rare are those types of blood clots in that unvaccinated demographic (under 50)? What are the chances that six people in that demographic had that rare type of blood clot after having received the vaccine? Ultimately, what you do to yourself and your children is your business, but my children deserve me to be their patient advocate because they are too young to protect themselves. I need both hands, both feet, and also those of my wife to count the number of times the CDC and the WHO have lied to us from the beginning of this pandemic. A wise man once said, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me, can't get fooled again."

I do read medical papers, thank you. Those posted in actual, peer-reviewed medical journals. Not those posted on pseudoscience conspiracy theory websites by "doctors" in name only. Here's an easy tip to tell the difference: If they cite Andrew Wakefield, it's not real science. His "research" was discredited and he lost his medical license. But every anti-vaxxer on the planet likes to cite him. As opposed to Dr. Fauci, who's never had a claim against him and has received innumerable awards in his field, but whose message doesn't fit the anti-vax narrative.

Since you claim to be so enamored of science and medical research, your last point makes zero sense. Science is always evolving, especially when it comes to a brand new virus. Evolving guidelines and recommendations that follow the data are sound science, not "lying." Surely someone who enjoys reading medical literature would know that, no?

 

[giulianam]

Not sure why that is sad. My husband and I are both vaccinated and my kids are doing other health measures. They’ll be okay.

When they are older.

 

[VandVsmama]

Yep, as soon as they can. My son has an immune deficiency where even a common cold usually turns in to a secondary infection, so I want to protect him from as many things as so can. I’ve done enough research and talked to enough doctors about the mRNA vaccines to feel comfortable with it.

We are good friends w/a family whose 10 yr old son is in the same boat as your son...their kiddo is very immune compromised and when he gets something, it turns serious pretty quickly. So we're going to get our kids vaccinated ASAP for their own good, but also for our friend's son since the more people he's around who are vaccinated, the lower the odds are that he'll get COVID. We've stayed away from their family for the entire pandemic. It's been rough!

 

[Gf77]

I do read medical papers, thank you. Those posted in actual, peer-reviewed medical journals. Not those posted on pseudoscience conspiracy theory websites by "doctors" in name only. Here's an easy tip to tell the difference: If they cite Andrew Wakefield, it's not real science. His "research" was discredited and he lost his medical license. But every anti-vaxxer on the planet likes to cite him. As opposed to Dr. Fauci, who's never had a claim against him and has received innumerable awards in his field, but whose message doesn't fit the anti-vax narrative.

Since you claim to be so enamored of science and medical research, your last point makes zero sense. Science is always evolving, especially when it comes to a brand new virus. Evolving guidelines and recommendations that follow the data are sound science, not "lying." Surely someone who enjoys reading medical literature would know that, no?

I'm not sure if you meant to respond to me, as I don't have any idea who Wakefield is, nor have I seen him cited in any literature by Lancet, MIT, Yale, or Stanford. Can't two folks have a simple conversation from differing viewpoints? Why the need to be so rude to a stranger on the internet? God Bless.

 

[Becky Mouse]

The FDA is set to extend emergency use authorization of the Pfizer vaccine to 12-15 year old kids as early as next week. I'm curious how everyone is feeling about getting their children vaccinated. Personally I am leaning towards getting it for my 12 and 14 year olds, as I do believe it will be eventually be required for school anyways. But I am definitely more hesitant getting it for my kids than I was for myself.

https://www.npr.org/sections/corona...uthorize-covid-19-vaccine-for-12-15-age-group

I'm so relieved! My kids have been virtual all year but are going back next year. As a teacher, I see how bad kids are at wearing masks and keeping social distance. COVID cases among children are so high right now! They account for about 22% of all current cases. There have been many outbreaks and schools and school sporting events over these last two months.

So, YES, I'm getting my kids vaccinated ASAP! I'm disappointed that our oldest kid is 11, so we have to wait until fall to get them their shots (Pfizer expects to apply for approval for kids 2-11 in September). I wish my kids could be fully vaxxed before the start of the school year.

 

[AndreaA]

I'm so relieved! My kids have been virtual all year but are going back next year. As a teacher, I see how bad kids are at wearing masks and keeping social distance. COVID cases among children are so high right now! They account for about 22% of all current cases. There have been many outbreaks and schools and school sporting events over these last two months.

So, YES, I'm getting my kids vaccinated ASAP! I'm disappointed that our oldest kid is 11, so we have to wait until fall to get them their shots (Pfizer expects to apply for approval for kids 2-11 in September). I wish my kids could be fully vaxxed before the start of the school year.

It’s so weird to hear of child cases... our boys are being homeschooled right now because virtual was a mess. However, they keep a chart on the school unit website that shows cases/quarantines. There has yet to be a single case that was traced back to the school and I don’t think there have been any cases of two positive kids in the same class.

 

[Colleen27]

Long-term effects are still being researched. There was a PBS article someone posted on another thread yesterday with experts talking about a study whose headline was 1 in 3 have long-term neuro or psychological effects from covid. They discredited themselves throughout the article by cautioning that other things could be at play and they can't be sure it was covid that caused the issues. It's not an easy thing to link especially because we are a sick country with a high percentage of people having co-morbidities.

That's always a problem with any medical issue - it is very hard to establish a causative relationship in a complex system, and it has only gotten harder with the platform the internet has given to professional skeptics. In fact, I seriously doubt that if the link between smoking and lung cancer emerged today it would be accepted as causative. But at some point, the numbers start to reach a point where they become hard to deny, and I think we're heading in that direction with long-term covid symptoms.

I do also keep an eye on anecdotal reports of vaccine side effects, but so far, I'm just not seeing anything too worrisome. I've heard from quite a few sources that the vaccine can be a trigger for some autoimmune conditions, particularly those of the relapsing/recurring type, but that is a known side effect of all vaccines and of viral infections themselves so I crossed my fingers and rolled the dice on that one. The weird one, I think, is the report of menstrual disturbances, which I initially dismissed as internet nonsense but have now heard about from some level-headed women of my personal acquaintance. I can't even imagine the mechanism by which a vaccine could cause erratic or heavy periods. Then again, I'm not generally a science-minded person.

You've asked the right question, so I hope you follow through on your own research. If there were only six reported blood clots out of 7 million J&J vaccines, why would they stop the rollout? Before you mimic "abundance of caution", research. Independent research, which means you're going to have read medical papers, not snopes.com. What kind of blood clots were they, and how rare are those types of blood clots in that unvaccinated demographic (under 50)? What are the chances that six people in that demographic had that rare type of blood clot after having received the vaccine? Ultimately, what you do to yourself and your children is your business, but my children deserve me to be their patient advocate because they are too young to protect themselves. I need both hands, both feet, and also those of my wife to count the number of times the CDC and the WHO have lied to us from the beginning of this pandemic. A wise man once said, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me, can't get fooled again."

They were quite transparent about that. The pause was partially to review the data and determine the connection and prevalence but also to disseminate information about that specific type of clotting as a rare-but-known vaccine side effect, because treating it the way a doctor would treat any other clotting issue worsens the problem and was a factor in the one death linked to the condition. It takes time to spread the word about something like that across our decentralized medical establishment, so even though the issue is far rarer than complications from covid, it was important to tap the brakes to make sure ERs and physicians knew to ask about whether a patient presenting with blood clots has had the J&J vaccine before administering heparin.

 

[Cheburashka]

The FDA is set to extend emergency use authorization of the Pfizer vaccine to 12-15 year old kids as early as next week. I'm curious how everyone is feeling about getting their children vaccinated. Personally I am leaning towards getting it for my 12 and 14 year olds, as I do believe it will be eventually be required for school anyways. But I am definitely more hesitant getting it for my kids than I was for myself.

https://www.npr.org/sections/corona...uthorize-covid-19-vaccine-for-12-15-age-group

My son is 16 and already vaccinated. Too bad there's no section on the poll for older teens already being vaccinated.

 

[TheFloatingBear]

It’s so weird to hear of child cases... our boys are being homeschooled right now because virtual was a mess. However, they keep a chart on the school unit website that shows cases/quarantines. There has yet to be a single case that was traced back to the school and I don’t think there have been any cases of two positive kids in the same class.

Not sure if you saw my earlier posts but it's the same for us. Pediatric cases account for about 20% of the town's cases as of the winter, perhaps a larger percentage at this point since there's been 2 larger outbreaks since then. An outbreak in April was 45 kids. In April and the first few days of May there have been 18 cases, but there is another outbreak from yesterday and I'm not sure the extent, just that it's closed my daughter's dance studio.

ETA: To correct, the outbreak with 45 kids was actually end of March. We were supposed to go back full time and it delayed it a bit...

 

[Gf77]

They were quite transparent about that. The pause was partially to review the data and determine the connection and prevalence but also to disseminate information about that specific type of clotting as a rare-but-known vaccine side effect, because treating it the way a doctor would treat any other clotting issue worsens the problem and was a factor in the one death linked to the condition. It takes time to spread the word about something like that across our decentralized medical establishment, so even though the issue is far rarer than complications from covid, it was important to tap the brakes to make sure ERs and physicians knew to ask about whether a patient presenting with blood clots has had the J&J vaccine before administering heparin.

The CDC vaccine advisory committee specifically recommended no "additional warning" be added for the vaccine because they feared it would increase vaccine hesitancy. If that strikes you as "quite transparent", we're in disagreement. AstraZeneca got much more attention on the international stage for their blood clots. The last number I saw indicated "severe blood clotting events" for 1 in 100,000 vaccinated, I'm not sure if it's higher or lower now. I think that's my point, and something nobody responds to because they have no argument. How do you prove a vaccine has no 5-10 year term side effects? It's usually part of the trials. They haven't done 5 years of testing on this vaccine, so the answer is- "nobody knows". So let's just call a spade a spade and admit that nobody has any idea what the 5-10 year side effects will be and not judge one another for the risks they are willing or unwilling to take with their own body and those of their loved ones. Thanks so much.