INDIANAPOLIS — Younger teenagers are next in line to get vaccinated. The FDA is expected to authorize the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 12-15 next week.
Amy and Jeff Wilson's two adolescent children would love to be first in line.
"For them, this really represents the opportunity to get back to activities in full," Dr. Amy Wilson said.
Their daughter Madelyn is 15, their son Sam is 11, and his July birthday can't come soon enough.
"He has a desperate fear of missing out and is very disgruntled his sister gets (the shot) first," Wilson said. "He wants the vaccine on his birthday and not a day after."
Wilson, a pediatric kidney specialist at Riley Children's Health gets it. While the family's gone camping and done other outdoor activities the past year, she said, "I'm a hardliner, my kids are not going to slumber parties...We're still abiding by the appropriate COVID precautions."
She said they're so eager to get back to after-school and other activities that they asked to be part of pediatric clinical trial, but the family couldn't find one close enough.
Wilson said, as doctor and a mom, she has no hesitation whatsoever about getting her kids vaccinated.
"It certainly sounds like the data from 12- to 15-year-olds is pretty reassuring from the side effects observed and immune response generated," she said.
As soon as they're eligible, Wilson plans to get Madelyn and Sam signed up and she hopes other parents do the same.
"What this really represents is a community insurance policy that our kids get to get back to the lives in which they can thrive the most," she said, adding that includes full-time in-person school and full-time in-person enrichment activities, be it sports, music or the arts.