Parents are so desperate to get their young children vaccinated that they're pleading with pediatricians to administer the shot before the FDA says it's OK for kids under 12
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- More children are testing positive for COVID-19 across the country.
- Some parents are begging doctors to vaccinate their kids under 12, The Washington Post reported.
- The FDA has yet to complete clinical trials on vaccines for those younger than 12.
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As COVID-19 cases among kids rise, parents are pleading to have those under 12 vaccinated against the virus, The Washington Post reported.
The Federal Drug Administration has yet to approve any COVID-19 vaccine for use in those under the age of 12.
A Los Angeles pediatrician who wished to remain anonymous but whose identity is known to Insider said that it was only recently that some parents began asking to get their kids under 12 vaccinated, despite lack of FDA approval.
"It's not FDA approved, so we're not doing it." the LA pediatrician told Insider. "They're studying it. There are studies if people want to get their children enrolled in a study to potentially get the vaccine. Those studies have been around for a while, but we can't really administer the vaccine under age 12."
Baltimore pediatrician Jason Goldstein, whose 11-year-old son is at risk for severe COVID-19, told the Post that while he's heard of parents anecdotally lying about their kid's ages to the vaccinated, he's abiding by the guidelines.
"We all want our children to get the best protection," Goldstein told the Post. "And just as much as we want to do it, we want to do it in the safest way possible. We've got to wait for the data to play out."
The LA pediatrician also told Insider he's heard of parents lying about their kid's ages to get vaccinated. However, he said that meant when those kids are eligible for a vaccine, the shots they may have received prior would not count on their record.
The Centers for Disease Control has also warned against vaccinating people not yet approved to get the vaccine, warning that kids under 12 may need a different dose of the vaccine and that side effects for children are still unknown.
"You don't want to make assumptions that something safe in a 25-year-old is safe in a 2-year-old," Rick Malley, an infectious disease expert at Boston Children's Hospital, told the Post.
The LA pediatrician told Insider the majority of kids testing positive for COVID-19 that he's seen have a mild illness, similar to that of a cold. However, as schools reopen and students congregate more there's also an uptick in regular colds and flus, which means more kids are going to see their pediatrician.
He said every time a child comes in with cold symptoms they have to be tested to rule out COVID-19 so they can be cleared to go back to school. While the LA pediatrician saw little regular illness during the time students were at home, he said kids typically get sick with a cold eight to 10 times a year, which means they'd have to be tested that many times.
"All the measures that we put in place to prevent the spread of COVID stopped all of the regular colds that you would normally see in pediatrics in their tracks," he told Insider.
Now, he says he's overwhelmed with kids who are sick and need to be tested to rule out COVID-19. He said the rate of COVID-19 among his patients correlated to the rate of community spread. Right now, about a tenth of the kids who come in sick test positive.
As of now, the American Academy of Pediatrics has warned against vaccinating kids under 12 prior to FDA approval as more doctors are being asked by parents to do so.
"We do not want individual physicians to be calculating doses and dosing schedules one-by-one for younger children based on the experience with the vaccine in older patients," Yvonne Maldonado, MD chair of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases, said. "We should do this based on all of the evidence for each age group, and for that we need the trials to be completed. I know parents are anxious to protect their children, but we want to make sure children have the full benefit of ongoing clinical trials."
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