Parents express mixed reactions to vaccine trial for children

Parents have expressed mixed reactions to the results of a phase two Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine trial for children between the ages of five and 11.

The pharmaceutical giant says the second of its three-phase trial has demonstrated that the vaccine is tolerated and generates a robust antibody response in this age group.

The trial included over 2000 children in the United States, Finland, Poland, and Spain.

Durban mother, Zine Shabalala, says she will get her children vaccinated as soon as the vaccine is available to them.

“After nearly losing my mom to COVID-19, I feel that having children being vaccinated would be a very good thing. They would be protected. Most importantly, the people that would be protected are the parents at home because we are more susceptible to receiving the virus and being even much sicker than the children because their immune system is much stronger than ours. I feel that as a parent I would actually be much happier if my child can get vaccinated and then I know that even if she does receive it or he does receive COVID-19, that it won’t be deadly. The child’s body would be able to fight against it.”

But not all parents are convinced.

One parent says, “As a mom to a five-year-old little girl, I am currently not comfortable exposing my child to the COVID-19 vaccine. I think I would need more knowledge of the safety and efficacy of this product before I would expose my child to it.”

“My husband and I are very pro-vax and we would like to vaccinate our children when the time does arise, but we wouldn’t do it immediately as we did when we were eligible for our vaccines. I would like to see more results from the trial first and take it from there,” adds another parent.

Pediatricians support the move to vaccinate children: