The COVID-19 Pandemic: What About Our Kids?

The PedsDocTalk Podcast: Child Health, Development & Parenting—From a Pediatrician Mom

Dr. Mona Amin

Medicine, Kids & Family, Health & Fitness, Parenting

4.9 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2021

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It is the year anniversary of this pandemic being declared by the WHO. We have seen many lives lost, many families impacted, and are always being required to stay flexible with changing guidance, research, and data. When it comes to kids, many parents have felt like guidance has been lacking. We know kids are not severely affected with complications as much as older adults, but they are at risk of getting this illness. And some risk is still risk. I invited Jessica Malaty Rivera (@jessicamalatyrivera on Instagram), who is an Infectious Disease Epidemiologist, Science Communication Lead at The COVID Tracking Project, and mother. We discuss the pandemic as it stands and what it means for our children and some of the following: What does Jessica do as an infectious disease epidemiologist? When do we foresee kids receiving the vaccines? Is there a chance kids won't need the vaccine? Why is it important to test the vaccine in children? Why is a vaccine important for kids even if they are not as affected by severe disease? What has been the hardest part of being on social media and spreading evidence-based information during this pandemic? How to most recent CDC guidelines (From March 8th) regarding vaccinated adults impacts those with children. Tune in and make sure to follow us @jessicamalatyrivera and @pedsdoctalk for more COVID-related education! Check out my weekly videos on child health & development by ⁠⁠subscribing to PedsDocTalk on YouTube⁠⁠. Get trusted pediatric advice, relatable parenting insights, and evidence-based tips delivered straight to your inbox—join thousands of parents who rely on the PDT newsletter to stay informed, supported, and confident. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Join the newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠! And don’t forget to follow ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@pedsdoctalkpodcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ on Instagram—our new space just for parents looking for real talk and real support. We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on the ⁠⁠⁠⁠PedsDocTalk Podcast Sponsorships⁠⁠⁠⁠ page of the website. Thank you to our sponsor: BetterHelp for sponsoring this episode. To schedule your first therapy session, visit https://www.betterhelp.com/peds to get 10% off your first month Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	You are listening to episode 56, the COVID-19 pandemic.
0:03.6	What about our kids? Welcome to this week's episode. I am so excited because I have a guest who I've been
0:18.2	trying to get on the podcast for so long. She is an amazing infectious disease epidemiologist and science communication lead at the COVID tracking project.
0:27.5	She's on Instagram as Jessica Mulotti Rivera.
0:31.0	Many of my followers, many of my listeners might already be following her.
0:35.0	Thank you so much Jessica for joining us today.
0:37.0	Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.
0:39.0	I'm so excited. I discovered your account obviously in the middle of this pandemic and I was talking to other people how I'm just so excited that scientists and nerds and every one of us in the medical field and science field is really taking social media by storm by you know crushing
0:54.4	all of this misinformation spreading accurate information it's just so great to
0:58.8	see you thrive on social media and share your knowledge with the world. So thank you.
1:03.2	Thank you.
1:04.2	It's a very surreal experience and not at all what I expected when I started posting some stories
1:09.2	almost a year ago to the date last year.
1:11.6	Yeah, yeah, we're recording this on March 10th and then the
1:14.9	pandemic was officially declared on the 11th, so yeah, year anniversary and as many
1:19.6	of you expected we're going to be talking about COVID. I had Jessica come on because I wanted to gear the conversation more towards pediatrics and children just because I am a pediatric podcast and we also feel and I personally too, that there's just not as much guidance for children.
1:36.0	Obviously the vaccine is right now for adults, which makes sense, older adults, but children are on the docket to get the vaccine hopefully eventually and so we're going to be talking a little bit more about children and just what what Jessica does as an epidemiologist.
1:50.0	So tell me more about what you do in your profession and the COVID
1:54.7	tracking project and how you got involved in it. Yeah, so I got my master's degree
1:58.8	over 10 years ago in emerging infectious diseases and while I was at Georgetown studying I was also working at
2:05.0	Georgetown working at the Division for Integrated Bio Defense and we were essentially tracking
2:08.9	emerging trends in epidemics that were potential pandemics.
	...

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