(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s largest grocery chain is now offering COVID-19 vaccines to young people, ages 12 to 15. Hy-Vee says the Pfizer vaccine is available free, but kids DO need their parents’ consent and a parent needs to accompany them for the shot. Dr. William Ching, a pediatric hospitalist at Unity Point Health St. Luke’s Hospital in Cedar Rapids, says if more children are vaccinated, it will get us closer to herd immunity.  Dr. Ching says, “These things are game changers that will do so much to restore normalcy for our children and our families.”

Dr. Joel Waddell, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Unity Point Health in Des Moines, says there’s much more to consider with a vaccine other than just protecting children against developing severe cases of COVID, because it will do that. It will also help with mental health and let kids start to return to a sense of normal, like visiting friends and family and even going to summer camps.

“There is an immediate benefit of giving this vaccine,” Dr. Waddell says, “and I think it’s going to loosen things up a little bit in terms of what activities are safe.” The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now recommends the Pfizer vaccine be given to kids as young as 12. Ching says in the trial, out of children who got the vaccine, zero contracted the virus and there were no serious side effects related to the vaccine. Both doctors made their comments on Iowa Public Radio’s program “Talk of Iowa.”

(reporting by Kassidy Arena, Iowa Public Radio)