Dealing with COVID-19 with children under 5 years old

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Efforts continue to get as much of the community as possible vaccinated against COVID-19.

However, a vaccine has still not been approved for the youngest American, meaning thousands of families are managing life while not being able to get some of their children vaccinated.

It can be stressful for families knowing their youngest loved ones are not vaccinated.

This is why there was an empty seat at Monday’s Columbus City Council meeting, the seat belonging to Columbus City Councilmember Rob Dorans.

Dorans said he is up to date on his COVID-19 vaccines but tested positive last Wednesday. So did his 13-month-old son.

“Fortunately, we’re both on the mend and hoping to be back to normal here relatively soon, but sort of that stress we lived with every day came home pretty quickly,” Dorans said.

He received a call from his son’s daycare telling him the child seemed sick. COVID-19 vaccines are approved for people five-years-old and older, so his son is much too young to get one.

“It’s frustrating because while so much of life has gone back to some version of normal, it’s not really possible for folks with young kids to go back to that normal,” Dorans said.

The Dorans are certainly not alone in living life with children too young to get the shot. According to census data, there are more than 60,000 children under the age of five in Columbus.

“It’s one of those things where you sort of live with that daily, of how do you protect your little one, but also how do you make sure that folks got to go earn a living and go out of the house and take care of things,” Dorans said.

OhioHealth Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Joseph Gastaldo said there are ways to go on with day-to-day life with children under five, suggesting masks in public if children are old enough, avoiding large crowds, and take tests at home.

“We have less tolerance for risk in children and that is true,” he said. “We really want to protect our children. But also, too, we have to be pragmatic. We cannot live in a bubble and we just have to do the best we can.”

Dorans and others will continue taking as many precautions as possible as they wait for those under five to be eligible for a vaccine.

“We’ve experienced this, countless families have experienced this, and it’s been a long time,” he said.

Gastaldo said his best guess as to when a vaccine for those under the age of five will be approved is sometime in the spring.

The Washington Post reported late Monday that Pfizer is expected to request emergency use authorization for this youngest age group as early as Tuesday, and the vaccine could be available by the end of February.