INDIANAPOLIS — Some local parents are ready for Pfizer's stamp of approval to get their children vaccinated against COVID-19.
"Day one, he will have his first dose," RJ Proie declared of his son, six-year-old Cameron.
Proie said he is ready for his son to get to experience a normal life and the way to do that is to get him and other children vaccinated.
"It's been tough to be a six-year-old and a five-year-old and four-year-old in pandemic days. He basically doesn't know anything else," Proie explained.
Proie is concerned that if the pandemic continues much longer, his son will not be able to have much of a childhood at all.
"I'm not just worried about him dying. I'm worried about him having not had the experiences that I'd like him to have as a little kid," Proie said. "I'm going to be more comfortable taking him places, just going out and experiencing things with him when I know he, my wife and I are all vaccinated."
Albert Tartaglia, a father of two, feels the same way. "I'd rather my kids be safe than have the risk of having something happen to them," he said.
Tartaglia said his seven-year-old daughter recently had a close call where they thought she had contracted COVID-19.
"The other day, my daughter was sick and she woke up with a 101-degree degree fever," he said.
The little girl tested negative, but the experience made her nervous, asking her father why she wasn't able to receive the vaccine yet.
"She's like, 'When can I get the vaccine daddy? You have it, why can't I get it yet?'" Tartaglia recalled.
While these two parents are on board and getting to get their children vaccinated if the Pfizer vaccine is approved by the FDA for emergency use on children between the ages of five and eleven, that's not the case for all parents.
WRTV recently shared a post on Facebook asking if parents would get their children vaccinated if it was approved. As a result, we received hundreds of comments, many from parents who were against their child getting vaccinated.
On Thursday, WRTV reached out to the dozens of people who left comments asking if they would like to share their opinion in an interview for this story. They decline to speak with us on camera, but some responded how they were concerned about the backlash they may face over sharing their view on the topic.
Below are additional resources and information parents can access to learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine for children:
- Click here for more information about COVID-19 vaccines for children and teens from the CDC.
- Click here for more information from Pfizer and BioNTech about the vaccine in children under 12.
- In September, Pfizer and BioNTech said the late-stage trials of the vaccine for kids show the shots were safe and effective for kids.
- Click here to learn more about the clinical trial process for kids and COVID-19 vaccines.
- For more information about the clinical trial data from Pfizer and BioNTech, click here.
