On Friday, June 4, the Centers for Disease Control released a study that found a troubling increase in more severe cases of COVID-19 among teens.
In March and April, there was an increase in the number of teenagers hospitalized with COVID-19, and nearly one-third of those hospitalized teenagers required intensive care. Five percent of them required mechanical ventilation.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky released a statement to accompany that study. It said, in part:
I am deeply concerned by the numbers of hospitalized adolescents and saddened to see the number of adolescents who required treatment in intensive care units or mechanical ventilation. Much of this suffering can be prevented.
To prevent that suffering, she urged children 12+ to get their vaccines.
But some adolescents still have questions about the Pfizer vaccine, and like adults, they deserve to feel confident in the choices they make about their bodies.
In this week's Petrie Dish, Bonnie Petrie gathered those questions and brought them to an infectious diseases and vaccine expert, Dr. Barbara Taylor at UT Health San Antonio, to get some answers.
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