Pediatricians and other experts answer questions about the COVID-19 vaccines.
Pediatrician Rhea Boyd, MD, MPH explains why even kids who had COVID-19 need to get vaccinated to be protected.
If your child had COVID they still need to get the COVID vaccine. There’s a couple of reasons for that. First, COVID has changed over the pandemic and the COVID strains that we are facing now, like the Delta strain is not the same as the strains that happened earlier in the pandemic, which means while their immune system may have made memory to an earlier strain, they still may be susceptible to later strains of the virus, like the Delta variant. And, so, getting a COVID vaccine helps protect them against new strains, like the Delta variant. We also know that having COVID infection, while offering some protection from re-infection with COVID, doesn’t protect people a hundred percent and isn’t long-lasting protection. It won’t last them the full year that they’re in school this year. And, so, we want kids, even if you’ve had COVID to get the COVID vaccine so that you have long-lasting immunity.
