Everything You Wanted To Know About Kids And Vaccines

Beginning this month, kids between 12 and 15 were granted emergency authorization by the Food and Drug Administration to be vaccinated, so far with the Pfizer vaccine only. But recently, Moderna announced that its vaccine for kids between 12 and 17 is 100 percent effective and hopes to seek approval from the FDA next month. And the Johnson and Johnson vaccine is in the testing phase, but may soon be authorized as well. 

Pfizer says it plans to seek emergency authorization for children between 2 and 11, possibly as soon as this fall, while Moderna's clinical trial on children as young as six months could have results by the end of the year. 

All of this is exciting news for some parents, who want to feel their children are as protected from the virus as they are, but it raises some questions for other parents -- questions about how safe the vaccine is for children, versus adults. 

Is the dosage being modified in any way? How might side effects differ? And what should you do in the meantime, if you're a family with an 11 year-old after June 2nd, when Ohio lifts its COVID-19 health orders, including the statewide mask mandate, and social distancing requirements?

This hour on The Sound of Ideas, we'll ask a pediatrician everything you need to know about children and the COVID-19 vaccine. 

Also in the hour, we'll learn about at-home community-based care services that help aging seniors, and we'll hear from experts, and a few of the participants.

We'll also talk about school start times, the latest installment of our joint Learning Curve education initiative with WKSU.

-Emily Muttillo, Applied Research Fellow, Center for Community Solutions  

-Ann Conn, President, McGregor Foundation 

-Wilhelmina Coleman, PACE Participant  

-Cynthia Etheridge, PACE Participant  

-Maureen Ahmann, DO, Pediatrician, Cleveland Clinic Children’s  

- Kabir Bhatia, Reporter, WKSU