Would you be happy for your children to receive covid-19 vaccine

I personally wouldn't want want to let my kids take their chances with covid. The stories about cognitive impairment and other long term effects from it are scarier than the risk posed by vaccines.

I'm just amazed that parents would be more willing to let their kids catch covid and take their chances with what that virus does to their body over a vaccine which is out of your system once your body learns to handle it.

Bizarre way to think. The fact that we know Measles so well is exactly why it's so easy to justify vaccination against it in children. It's very serious for them and potentially deadly.

You then say we know next to nothing of the long term affects of covid but that we should fear knowledge that we don't have (???). And this even though every piece of data we do have suggests that there is nothing to fear for children.

Perplexing.

We won't be getting ours vaccinated this year. Maybe next when more data is available on the possible affects on kids. If that means staying out of restaurants etc so be it.

Feel free to pile on, I'm not for changing

This is a difficult one for sure .

On reading some of the contributions here, I have to say while I am not giving advice as a nurse ( and also a registered children's nurse at that ) I would give this vaccine to my children so that they would be protected from admittedly less than 1% severe illness , and complications like Paediatric Multiinflammatory Syndrome ( MiSC) again rare but very real .

The risks of mild cardiac inflammation / myocarditis are the only major side effect I have read or heard of so far in all the multiple vaccinations given and post vaccination studies. This risk is estimated at about 30 to 40 per million which is less than the incidence of MiSC by long shot .

Children get vaccinated for infections which although may have severe risks those risks are relatively rare eg Meningitis.

This is one of these vaccines.

Most children will be fine if they catch Covid.

A small number will not though.

We would all like more time to assess the vaccines and their side effects but there is only a small window to prevent this very infectious variant from becoming endemic and causing further problems for us and our children down the line.

However that should not be the main priority for any parent in this decision, which I know will go against what other very knowledgeable, respected posters have said 🙄

I also trust NIAC in their professionalism and expert opinion, but I recognise that as a health professional I may be tilting in their favour more than others would.

So yes, I would give this vaccine to my children, am getting my teenager vaxxed, and am supporting my older now adult children in their decision making.

@Toodles_27 Please just try to keep open about it and read reliable information about the vaccines.

Facebook is not the place to read about any kind of medical advice or information. Neither should you listen to neighbours or anyone else who do not have your children's best interests at heart.

You are right to listen to your GP and be guided by him/ her and you are the best person to decide what is right for your own children, having listened to proper advice and guidance.

But you accept that this is an irrational fear of yours?

It is interesting that you call yourself an hysterical selfish parent and then justify it by putting others in the same category.

As I said, it's fine to be irrational, people are about their kids, I would be with mine in certain circumstances, but I know when I'm doing that and understand that the issue is with myself and not others and hopefully adult enough not to get defensive when it's pointed out to me.

The vaccines being proposed for kids introduce a spike protein - an identifier of sorts which the virus has so the bodies own immune system forms a response to it. Subsequently shortly after is broken down... When this spike or something close to it is recognised again the body is more equipped to handle it.

The rare reactions, enlarged heart can occur when the immune system over compensates. But this reaction can also occur when someone gets covid or some other viruses.

Covid should be a mild illness in kids but not always and long covid which isn't really understood in adults could be the result of organ damage which may not be apparent in a child immediately.

As a parent when my child is ellegible I would be strongly in favour of them getting it.

Forget the long term effects of covid so. Do you look at the news from around the world at all. Have a look at other countries, e.g. Indonesia where kids are dying of the virus now.

Would you be happy for your children to receive covid-19 vaccine

Yes. Of course I would.

This is a very important point that many posters are overlooking. A small fraction of the world has been vaccinated and it’s likely to be that way for some time. Our efforts in Ireland alone will not be enough to prevent variants or stop it being endemic. So there is no point getting upset with parents who would make a different decision to yourself. Right now in Ireland we are using the vaccines that we are getting in via deliveries. We are not in a situation where there are thousands of vaccines sitting in warehouses because people won’t take them. People are taking them. Some people will delay but if someone else is taking that vaccine it’s not that big a problem.

We are in uncharted territory regarding using vaccines to get out of a pandemic. It’s never been done before. Theoretically it is very possible to end this pandemic using vaccines, but I don’t believe it can be done with only wealthy nations vaccinated. There is really no point getting upset with parents in Ireland that are planning on waiting. As we see from childhood vaccination program the vast, vast majority of parents are not anti-vaxxers in this country. It will be same with Covid vaccine but it might take a month or two for some to sign their child up.

My 12 year old is double vaccinated and has been for a few weeks - no underlying conditions and no side effects.

My wife works in the industry (not directly related to this vaccine) and has seen a huge amount of actual data (not facebook data) and as a fully informed pharma scientist with access to the clinical data had no reservations about getting the vaccine herself or for our daughter.

She spends her days absolutely furious with the horseshite she hears and sees across social media and the main stream media. She understands why some parents are hesitant .. but that is due to the onslaught of misinformation and irrational thinking and theorising by unqualified ‘experts’ .

Viruses will mutate as long as they are able to move freely around any demographic …. This free movement is aided by unvaccinated people and therefor the more unvaccinated vectors in the population the greater the chances the virus has to mutate … and of course the greater the chance of a mutation which is either more transmissible or more damaging to public health and even more resistant to vaccines.

The argument of ‘it doesn’t affect kids’ .. shows a total lack of understanding of the basics of managing a virus from a public health perspective.

I even had to listen to someone on Newstalk yesterday saying she had great experience of travelling around the world and using holistic medicines as a reason to not take the vaccine - its mind boggling how we can allow this nonsense to be broadcast.

There isn’t anyone forcing a vaccine on anyone … its a personal choice - however as with all personal choices there will be implications - and at the moment that is not being allowed inside to have a pint or a bit of lunch … but the implications to society at large may well be greater.

The good news is that the vast majority of Irish people follow the science and are willing to take the vaccine … so hopefully that large percentage will offset the choices the rest make.

No, this is wrong too.

The vaccines are highly effective at preventing transmission. Greater than 95% effective according to some very large studies. They absolutely prevent transmission.

Seriously, we need billboards to this effect.

They're about 80% effective at reducing infection from Delta on average (see link below). That doesn't mean 20% of people are going to get it, it means your chances of getting it are reduced by 80% so in reality the situation is better than the figure would suggest at first glance. They're 95%/97% effective at keeping you out of hospital. I haven't seen much in the way of transmission data, but it is a relatively small number of vaccinated people who bought get infected in the first place, and then generate enough virus to go on to spread it. The CDC are now advising even vaccinated people to wear a mask again, but they use the word "rare".

You're mistaking "transmission" with "infection".

The data is showing more people can become infected with Delta. But most infections are asymptomatic, and the volume of virus expelled by even a symptomatic vaccinated person is likely to be a lot less (e.g. a headcold which clears up in a day or two, versus an unvaccinated person being infectious for a week). There's very little stats on the likelihood of transmission by vaccinated people simply because it's hard to find cases.

In the long-term, we're probably all going to become "infected" with the virus. Antibodies won't hang around forever. What matters is whether your body can recognise the virus and react quick enough to kill it - this is what the vaccine gives you. Without the vaccine, your body doesn't recognise it and mounts a very disorganised and slow response.