As Covid-19 initially started spreading across the globe, experts noticed a silver lining as children were normally spared from the illness. However, in the United States, COVID-19 did affect some children severely, especially in inner city areas. Some children got MIS-C, Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome from COVID-19.
Children with this illness experience fever and gastrointestinal distress, abdominal pain or discomfort, vomiting, diarrhea, neck aches/painful joints of the spine, and inflammation.
As infections rose, a study found that black children were disproportionately affected by COVID-19 related multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C). The research team studied 223 patients under 20 years old who had been hospitalized with MIS-C.
Interestingly, of the 19.9% of pediatric COVID-19 cases admitted in New York City hospitals, 34.4 % of MIS-C cases were black children.
Children between 12-15 years can be considered for Pfizer’s child vaccine and with black children being more susceptible to MIS-C, the idea of vaccinating them could be considerable. However, will African American mothers support COVID-19 vaccinations for their children despite the higher risk of MIS-C?
How will historical racial discrimination in the US healthcare system impact their decision to vaccinate their children? With limited understanding of the vaccine's contents and its long term efficacy, will black mothers still move forward with vaccinating their children anyway? If schools make COVID-19 vaccines mandatory how will this influence their decision?
Statistics in 2019 showed about 4.15 million Black families are led by single mothers in the United States. Therefore, these women would be the sole decision-makers behind their children getting vaccinated. Understandably, this can be a stressful decision for some black women to make.
What decision will you make?