Dr. Vivek Murthy is the Surgeon General of the United States and a leading expert on COVID-19. I sat down with him to discuss his ...

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The Truth About COVID Vaccines For Kids ft. Surgeon General

the cdc is now recommending the pfizer vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. what does that mean what are the benefits what are the drawbacks and how you can help in the battle against misinformation with our good friend the surgeon general dr vivek morthy let's get started we have a lot to talk about yes a lot's happened since you and i last chat yeah now we have the vaccine that is more widely available for kids and that's a topic i really want to dive into but first let's talk about this misinformation toolkit that you've published tell me more about that and we did that not because health misinformation is new but because in the last few years we've seen a dramatic increase in the scale and the speed and sophistication with which this misinformation is spreading so we wanted to call attention to that and let everyone know that there were steps all of us could and needed to take and here's why this is so important because there's a recent poll that just came out that showed that close to 80 percent of people either believe or think some of the myths out there about clovid 19 are actually true what i love about the approach that's really highlighted in this toolkit is that you want to lead with an empathetic approach you want to be not so much challenging what people currently believe but sort of coming from a place of understanding of where they're hearing it why they're worried one of the things that you know we advocate for in this toolkit is first just taking a pause to understand what people's motivations are what their concerns are what's important to them if we don't take an empathetic approach if we don't give people the benefit of the doubt before we judge or shame them then we lose them you know we don't have the opportunity to to support folks in reaching that shared goal you know i haven't heard of a single person's mind who's been changed by being shamed or blamed so the bottom line is those approaches don't work yeah tell me uh what vaccine has been authorized by the fda under the eua and what are the steps that parents should take to getting this vaccine for their kids well i'm glad we're talking about this because this is a landmark moment uh for not just for parents like me about kids 5-11 but for all of us who want to see this pandemic come to an end with the recent fda authorization and the cdc recommendation of the vaccine for kids five through eleven and this is the fizer vaccine mind you we now have 28 million uh children 28 million more people who have come under the umbrella potentially of being vaccinated but here's what parents really need to know number one the vaccine was rigorously tested in clinical trials and it was put through the same review process by the fda and cdc that we put any other vaccine through and what they found in that review process was that this vaccine was highly effective more than 90 percent effective at protecting our kids from symptomatic covet the second thing they found is that the safety profile the vaccine was actually really really good and when children did have a side effects they were a sore arm fatigue a headache occasionally a fever but those symptoms went away within a day or two and what the children were left with was longer term protection and very importantly they did not see any serious adverse effects do you view this authorization for five to eleven year olds as a potential off-ramp for some of the residual mass mandates that still exist whether it's in schools in hospitals yeah well so i think the more people get vaccinated the more we have a chance of getting cases that come down and stay down and then that's really going to be our key to an off ramp with things like masks and other restrictions as well kids in addition to getting kovi 19 also can spread kobe 19. there was a notion out there before that kids don't transmit the virus we absolutely found that is not the case they do transmit the virus they contribute to spread and so yes getting 28 million more children vaccinated will absolutely help reduce the spread help get cases down keep them down and that's how when we can start to get rid of some of the restrictions that we currently have right now how does getting your child vaccinated protect grandma well great question we know again that children can transmit the virus that has definitely been proven we also know that when children then see folks who are vulnerable like grandparents for example especially those who have not been vaccinated there's a real risk they can pass on the virus to them and that's important because we've seen the vast majority of deaths that have taken place in kobe 19 has occurred among the elderly population those above 65. and finally mike i think it's important that we recognize one thing that covet has taught us right is that our health really does depend on what other people do yeah right and what we've learned from other viruses and illnesses in the past is that more of us get vaccinated the more of a wall we build around those who are vulnerable yeah and you know a very specific question that i see come up quite often on social media and for my patients is on the topic of myocarditis the inflammation of the heart we didn't even see that in the the pfizer study uh for five to eleven year olds do you think the study had sufficient uh participants to rule that out and if it does happen what does it mean how does it compare to getting myocarditis from actual covet 19. the trial that was done for kids 5-11 had several thousand children in it right so they were able to detect side effects that would happen with any reasonable frequency and thankfully they didn't see any serious adverse effects now is there a chance that there could be a very rare side effect that crops up and there's always a that chance but everything we do is a risk benefit right and what we we have to compare the risk of any vaccine to is to the risk of getting covet itself and there what we do know is that people who get covet do have a significantly higher risk of actually having cardiac involvement like myocarditis we also know that they have a risk of blood clots they have a risk of long covet and a whole host of other issues which you don't see with vaccines i think the reality of how prevalent covet is now in our society that you're basically choosing between getting the vaccine and getting covet at this point because i don't think there's a child out there who you can say they probably won't experience covet i think it's so prevalent that you're almost having to make the choice it's between the vaccine or covet and in that case if you look at the myocardius that has happened in the slightly age higher age range for kids it's been so few in comparison to getting myocarditis from kovid19 you're essentially making the decision between one of two paths and we want to make the the path of least disease least infection least complications and covenant 19 has a lot of complications as you said so i really that's like the take-home point for parents how do you see this misinformation playing out with the topic of infertility for children because that's something a lot of parents are worried about because their children five to eleven don't have that issue at that point obviously but then later in life is that something you're concerned about even perhaps for your own children yeah i'm glad you raised it because there are about a third of folks out there who either believe or unsure about this myth around infertility the truth is that there is nothing in the the data that we have in the science that lends any credence to that rumor there is no link between the vaccine and infertility and that's actually why i'm getting my five-year-old vaccinated too because of course i want him to have a healthy future i want to be healthy in all ways i would love to him for him to have a family one day uh if he wants to but i'm not concerned that the vaccine is going to inhibit any of that if anything i feel the vaccine will give him a greater shot of leading a healthier life and not having complications from covet and that's what we all want as parents what's your guidance on receiving the covet 19 vaccine for your five to 11 year old uh and getting other vaccines at the same time the good news is you can get other vaccines as well it's very important to get vaccinated for flu you know you just need to get it at a different site so you know we have two arms so we can get a shot in each arm what would you tell parents who have an 11 year old who's close their 12th birthday should they wait for the 30 microgram dose yes i would say i would say don't wait i'd say go ahead and get your dose now and if your child is 11 they'll get 10 micrograms if they're 12 by the time they're due for their second dose then they'll get 30 micrograms you know at that point but the reason not to wait is that you don't want to delay your child starting to build protection and they will start to build protection with that 10 microgram dose especially with as much covet as we have circulating the faster kids get protected the better are there any children that you would recommend to not get vaccinated or hold off waiting to get vaccinated so i'd say the only reason to hold off getting vaccinated is if you have a specific allergy to a component of the pfizer vaccine that's very rare people generally don't don't have that but if you have an allergy to foods or to eggs for example other things you don't need to avoid getting vaccinated we want people to go ahead and get vaccinated yeah i think a lot of patients and parents have questions if their child has a unique condition whether it's a platelet condition some other allergy perhaps a heart condition or diabetes runs in the family and they get worried if their child is at a higher risk to having side effects is any of that true well so you so generally we haven't seen you know any concerns with with children with other medical conditions getting the vaccine that's good news in fact i would say the flip is true which is if you have other medical conditions then we know from our experience with kova that increases a risk of you having bad outcomes if you get covet 19. so in my mind it's actually all the more important for children with other medical conditions to get vaccinated to protect them against the bad outcomes of the virus one thing it's really important i think is for us to recognize that getting our kids vaccinated is also about helping to address the profound mental health tool that our kids have sustained over the last 20 months rates of anxiety and depression and loneliness rise among many groups of children and this is so sad to see and it's and it's heartbreaking but we can do something about it that's where the vaccine is so helpful it's a very holistic approach and as a family medicine doctor who's also an osteopathic physician by training i i very much appreciate you thinking in those terms and i am so i'm really hopeful also at this moment and i know that sometimes you read the news and and it can feel like it's doom and gloom all the time but there are so many reasons at this particular point in time to be hopeful we have not just one but three vaccines available we have 190 million plus people have been fully vaccinated we have our kids back in school we have vaccines for kids 5-11 and we're finding ways to get back to our way of life but we can only do it together and that's why it's not just about doctors like me and you having conversations about people recognizing the power they have because of their voice because of their trusted relationships they can be the person who makes a difference in someone else's decision to get protected by getting vaccinated dr morthy thank you so much for educating us empowering us to help my viewers and myself and my family to make the right decisions about our health and i hope we continue meeting up with this misinformation we have a toolkit now that i can arm my residents with community leaders with and we continue to thank you for the work that you've been doing so thank you for that i so appreciate that mike i had a difficult patient encounter click here to check that out and as always stay happy and healthy you

Dr.

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