Why to vaccinate: Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Lauren Hopson

“Many parents are asking me, ‘Why should I vaccinate my kids if they would likely only have mild symptoms from COVID-19?’ Here are my top reasons to vaccinate your child:

• Some kids do get very sick. We saw higher rates of kids being hospitalized from the Delta variant and some kids have long-term complications like Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome.
• We don’t want kids to pass on this deadly virus to people who are more susceptible to having severe symptoms, like grandparents.
• The more people who are vaccinated, the fewer hosts for COVID-19 to mutate and form new variants. We are seeing this now with the Omicron variant.
• Vaccines are one tool we can use to prevent future variants and keep our kids in school and doing what they love to do.”

Lauren Hopson is a Pediatric Nurse Practitioner at Glacier Pediatrics in Juneau.

City and Borough of Juneau and partners are holding a free Pfizer vaccine clinic for kids age 5-11 this Saturday, December 4, at Riverbend Elementary School from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Register your child at juneau.org/vaccine, call 907-586-6000, or simply walk in. This is CBJ’s last pediatric vaccine clinic of the year. The Riverbend clinic will offer first and second doses.