Pediatric Urgent Care

With the blessing of the Centers for Disease Control of Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration, urgent care providers are now at liberty to administer booster doses of COVID-19 vaccine for patients as young as 16 years of age. The CDC made its recommendation the same day the FDA announced that it had expanded its Emergency Use Authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to include 16- and 17-year-olds. As with adults, those boosters can be …

While patients with asthma were not found to be at greater risk for COVID-19 or poor outcomes with the virus early on in the pandemic, it now appears that children with asthma are more likely to wind up in the hospital if they become infected. In fact, according to an article published in MedPage Today, a retrospective study of approximately 750,000 children (5 to 17 years of age) in Scotland showed a greater than sixfold …

COVID-19 continues to have many people a little skittish about rushing to the emergency room. And between the pandemic and staffing problems, even some hospital administrators are recommending that patients visit an urgent care center unless they truly have an emergency. As such, urgent care providers should be aware of a new study published by JAMA Network regarding the need for re-treatment of children who were hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia. The population consisted of 824 …

At this point, you’ve probably heard that the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that children 5- to 11-years-old be vaccinated against COVID-19 with the Pfizer pediatric vaccine. What may be news is the sense of urgency the CDC is exhibiting in sharing the news, with the agency suggesting in a statement that healthcare providers “begin vaccinating them as soon as possible.” While the perception of the public (and some public officials) …

While COVID-19 vaccination mandates are the raging debate of the moment, something more fundamental but equally fraught with the potential for danger has gone largely unnoticed. Many medical practices—including pediatric offices—discouraged or outright ceased visits for routine care at times during the pandemic. Consequently, according to new research published by JAMA Pediatrics, the proportion of children who are up to date on their childhood vaccinations has suffered. Based on review of vaccination rates in 2019 …

Owing to the facts that adults have been eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine longer than children (with many children still not able to do so) and schools have been back in session for more than a month now, cases among children have grown to the extent that they now make up a disproportionate share of the U.S. caseload. According to data from the American Academy of Pediatrics, children make up 22% of the U.S. …

Drive through many residential neighborhoods in the U.S. and you’re likely to see banners raging against mask mandates for schoolchildren. Grassroots organizations have even taken to buying space on billboards decrying the “cruelty” of making children wear masks and ridiculing the notion that doing so offers any protection at all. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would probably beg to differ, however, as data from a newly released study show there is a distinct …