Kids Under 5 Still Can't Get Vaccinated. What The Omicron Surge Means For Them
Consider This from NPR
NPR
4.2 • 6.2K Ratings
🗓️ 5 January 2022
⏱️ 13 minutes
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Summary
For advice on navigating the pandemic in this moment, we turn to Dr. Ibukun Kalu, a pediatric infectious disease doctor at Duke University.
Additional reporting in this episode from NPR's Allison Aubrey.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | more than a million new cases of COVID-19. That is how many Johns Hopkins University |
| 0:06.4 | clocked in the U.S. on Monday of this week alone. |
| 0:09.6 | And I'll give it to you straight as I promised you I always would. We're going to see as you all |
| 0:15.4 | have been hearing continued rise in cases. That was President Biden on Tuesday, winter weather, |
| 0:22.4 | driving people indoors, holiday gatherings, and travel. And of course, the Oma Cron variant |
| 0:27.6 | have all created a perfect storm. Case numbers are now far higher than they've ever been in the U.S. |
| 0:33.6 | But the good news is with widely available vaccines and boosters. And by the way, we have booster shots |
| 0:40.1 | for the whole nation. It's never been easier for everyone to have protection against serious illness. |
| 0:46.0 | Well, at least almost everyone. The fact that Oma Cron is substantially more transmissible |
| 0:53.2 | without a doubt more children that we're going to get infected, you're going to see more children |
| 0:59.8 | being hospitalized. That was Dr. Anthony Fauci speaking to New York's PIX 11. Those hospitalized |
| 1:06.8 | children will include some kids under five years old. And kids in that age group still do not have |
| 1:13.3 | a vaccine available. This week, Fauci said one might be ready in the first half of this year. |
| 1:20.4 | Hopefully in the first half, hopefully towards the earlier part of the first half, we may have some |
| 1:26.9 | information so that we can vaccinate children of that age. Consider this in the pandemic's biggest |
| 1:33.6 | case surge, the nation's youngest kids have no vaccine protection. And their parents and care |
| 1:39.8 | takers, well, they have a lot of questions. Is it safe to take a five hour flight with an |
| 1:44.7 | unvaccinated two year old? I'm wondering about severity and risk. How much research has been done |
| 1:50.0 | for the babies who were in utero? Our main concern is that a lot of people are going back to normal |
| 1:55.3 | basically and our daughter is still not protected. We put those concerns and questions to a pediatrician |
| 2:02.2 | that's coming up. From NPR, I'm Elsa Chang. It's Wednesday, January 5th. |
| 2:08.5 | Support for NPR and the following message come from the new Venture X card from Capital One. |
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