One of the decisions I had to make recently was whether or not to get Elliott and Emmett vaccinated for COVID. That took about 3 seconds to figure out what the right thing to do was. Of course, the boys will get vaccinated ASAP. Do I have questions about the vaccines in regards to my kids? Sure I do and that’s okay. There’s nothing wrong with having questions about something like this. That being said, I seek out information from friends who are quite literally experts in the field.

I don’t think people should be criticized for having questions or concerns but as adults we have a responsibility get our information from expert sources and not social media or right wing media sources. We owe our kids better than that and trusted sources aren’t hard to find. I trust places like the Cleveland Clinic, Akron Children’s, Harvard Medical, Boston Children’s, Mayo, John Hopkins, and St. Jude. I’m lucky enough to have access to some really smart, really amazing people who specialize in vaccines, virology, epidemiology, and public health.

The decision was easy for me because I’ve been following the progress as we got closer and closer to getting emergency authorization usage for kids ages 12 -15. I made sure to educate myself so I could pull the trigger as soon as it became available to my kids.

I was supposed to get them vaccinated last week but I was in the hospital and not in any condition to take them anywhere. I made up for that today because we ventured to Akron Children’s Hospital this morning and both the boys received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

They were a little nervous but no more than they are for any shot. Both the boys did awesome and as always, my friends at Akron Children’s did an absolutely amazing job. I was happy to see a good turnout because we need to get as many humans vaccinated as possible. Kids make up a large portion of the population and they need to get vaccinated if we’re ever going to hit the 70% or 80% needed to acquire herd immunity.

We will return mid-June to get the second dose.

So far, aside from a sore arm, the boys are doing fine. I hope that remains the extent of their side effects but I suspect we’ll have a better idea in the morning. Gavin and I both received the Moderna and got hit on the second day. Either way, dealing with the temporary side effects is far, far better than the alternative.

Please get vaccinated. If you have questions, ask them but don’t allow conspiracy and misinformation to influence you. Trust the science and follow the facts. I’m so grateful that my kids are on the road to immunity.