Thread by @LanreFalusi

I’ve been asked several times if I plan to get my 3yr old and 16mo old vaccinated against COVID.

Guess what? *Every* pediatrician I know with kids under 5 is eager to vaccinate their kids against COVID.

Why is that?

🧵

We've talked with thousands of families about COVID.

We've done our research (like, literally).

We’ve seen the immediate effects of coronavirus infection, including kids who have been hospitalized or worse.

We’ve seen the long-term effects of coronavirus infection -

long COVID with debilitating fatigue, significantly increased risk of autoimmune illnesses like Type 1 diabetes, and more.

So, no, it's not always "mild" for kids.

jamanetwork.com/journals/jamap…

(For me, my 2 greatest reasons for vaccinating my little ones are:

🏥 to keep them out of the hospital if they do catch COVID and

😟 to prevent these potential long-term chronic illnesses arising after COVID infection)

And we've seen our patients have to miss specialty appointments, developmental therapies, and other important health services because they were home sick with COVID.

We’ve seen their parents lose paid work days to care for their COVID+ kids -

with greater disparities in Black families, Indigenous communities, immigrant families, other families of color, and people living in poverty.

And, if there truly have been severe vaccine side effects, we would've seen those too.

We've worried about every sniffle and cough and lost count of the number of times we had to swab their little noses while they tried to wiggle away (@JamiePoz❤️).

And scrutinized those cute daycare photos to see how many of the little kids are able to keep their masks on -

while even their older, vaccinated sibs had to hold back a bit on activities to avoid exposing the little ones.

With all of this, we've concluded that, yes, #VaccinesWork and #VaccinesSaveLives.

So, yep, we will vaccinate our 2 toddlers as soon as we can get an appointment!

#PutKids1st #ImmunizeUnder5s
@HippocraticHost

Glad to see the interest in vaccinating kids under 5! For more science-based thoughts on health and parenting, check out the podcast I co-host with @LisaVKMD:

hippocratichosts.com

But mostly I just want to say that #VaccinesSaveLives 😊