NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) – Some of the youngest children in the New Orleans area are now vaccinated.
On Tuesday, the city’s health department joined children’s hospital to administer Moderna and Pfizer vaccines to ten children between six months and 5-years-old
Last week, the FDA granted emergency use authorization for both Moderna and Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines for the last demographic to receive approval.
Dr. Mark Kline, the physician-in-chief at Children’s Hospital, says the FDA’s approval of vaccines for small children is a sigh of relief for him and his team.
“It is really a testament to the hard work of literally thousands of individuals,” said Dr. Kline. “If we were going to thank everyone who had a role in this, there would be a lot of people to thank today.”
According to Kline, there are currently eight children who are hospitalized at Children’s with COVID-19.
Cases of RSV are also on the rise, which is why he advises against parents waiting to do it.
“Really now is the time to do it because we’ve got both of these viruses active in our community, and we need to protect as many kids as we can,” said Kline.
Parents say the decision to get their children vaccinated was easy.
“You know, it definitely makes day-to-day life considerably easier and less worry,” said a parent who had both of his children vaccinated.
Some parents recommend other parents to do their own research and understand every medical decision comes with risks.
“After I did my research, to me, this risk was less than the risk if she caught COVID,” said Jessica Brown, who had her almost-five-year-old vaccinated.
According to Kline, vaccines should be available at a couple hundred locations throughout the state by the end of this week or early next week.