DOTHAN, Ala.— With Alabama entering Phase 1b, which allows educators to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, the question remains: When will students be able to get their shot?
“So I think as time goes on we’ll get vaccines in children, but it’s going to be six months, maybe even a year before we probably vaccinate children is what I’m predicting,” Pediatrician Dr. Robert Benak said. “Now it may be sooner, I hope, but it may be a long time before we actually get children’s vaccines.”
This comes at a time when new variants of the COVID-19 virus are being found and have been reported to be more susceptible to children, but Benak explained that the vaccines we have now will be able to help with variants.
“The vaccines that we have I think are going to be good against these variants to a degree,” he said.
Benak compared the new COVID-19 vaccines to the flu shot, which can rarely not prevent the flu but can prevent other diseases.
Although kids will not be receiving the vaccine soon, drug companies like Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson have begun trials for children’s vaccines, but no data found has been reported.
The question still begs in every student’s mind: Will I have to wear a mask in school after I get the vaccine?
“Well I think those decisions will have to be made you know of course on what the numbers are telling us at the time,” ADPH Southeastern Administrator Corey Kirkland said. “If we still have a large group of people still being infected and if we still have serious disease from it I think certainly we need to do that to help keep not only the kids safe but keep the teachers safe.”
