DENVER (KDVR) — As the Delta variant quickly makes its way across Colorado, there’s a new push to get kids in the state vaccinated.
As things stand, children 12 and older are eligible to get the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine. But by late summer or early fall, younger kids will likely have access to it too.
Across the country, the number of pediatric COVID-19 cases is going down, but Front Range doctors say there’s still cause for concern.
A year ago children only accounted for 2% of new COVID infections, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
As of today, children account for more than 24% of new weekly infections.
Local infectious disease experts say even with the Delta variant, COVID remains a relatively mild self-limited disease for children.
The danger is more so the post-COVID symptoms, which we still don’t fully know about and the ability to have children infect others.
“And with this Delta variant we are going to begin to see waning immunity among other populations, including grandparents. So older people have waning immunity, people who are not immunocompetent will likely have waning immunity — or not as good of a response to the vaccine and those people can be at risk,” said Dr. Richard Zane, Chief Innovation Officer for UCHealth.
Dr. Zane says it’s even more reason for both adults and kids who haven’t been vaccinated to get vaccinated.
If things go as planned, it’s looking like children under 12 will be eligible for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as early as the end of this summer.
According to Dr. Zane, the latest data from trials looks exceptionally reassuring.