CDC to parents: Please have your teens get COVID-19 shots [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky urged parents on Friday to vaccinate their children against the COVID-19.
• Walensky cited a recent study showing growing hospitalization rates among teens due to the virus.
• Walensky said that getting everybody vaccinated is needed to end the pandemic.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky encouraged parents Friday to have their teens get the COVID-19 vaccine.

Walensky revealed that she was concerned over a new research that found COVID-19 hospitalizations were growing among American teens (aged 12 to 17).

The research showed that hospitalization rates among adolescents reached a record high of 2.1 per 100,000 in early January 2021, which dipped to 0.6 in March but then increased again at 1.3 in April.

Over 30 percent of the 204 recorded hospitalized teens from January 1 to March 31 were needed to be brought to the intensive care unit, while five percent of them had to be put on a medical ventilation system. The study discovered that around seven out of 10 hospitalized teens had at least one underlying medical condition such as obesity, chronic lung disease (e.g. asthma) and neurologic disorders.

“I am deeply concerned by the numbers of hospitalized adolescents and saddened to see the number of adolescents who required treatment in intensive care units or mechanical ventilation. Much of this suffering can be prevented,” Walensky said in a statement.

She added that adolescents, who are not fully vaccinated yet, should continue to wear masks and take precautionary measures, especially when they’re around people who are not vaccinated yet.

The CDC director continued: “I ask parents, relatives and close friends to join me and talk with teens about the importance of these prevention strategies and to encourage them to get vaccinated.”

As she believed that obtaining the shots is the “way out of this pandemic,” Walensky pointed that she continues to observe “promising signs in CDC data that we are nearing the end of this pandemic in this country.”

The CDC director ultimately said that everybody has to do their part by getting “vaccinated to cross the finish line.”

Walensky’s statements came following last month’s study showing that Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine was highly effective and safe for minors aged 12 to 17 years old. The company initiated a clinical trial called TeenCOVE, which had over 3,700 kid participants who either obtained the shots or a placebo. The vaccine was found to be 100 percent effective across the vaccine groups.

Moderna is set to send its findings to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) within this month.

Meanwhile, the FDA has already given its go signal to vaccinate children aged 12 to 15 years old with the Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine.

Source: PEOPLE