OLDHAM COUNTY, Ky. — Twenty million additional children are now eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine according to the CDC. All children 6 months to 5 years old now qualify to receive their shot of hope, and two-year-old Isla McNabb is one of them.
What You Need To Know
- COVID-19 vaccines are now available for children 6 months to 5 years of age
- Isla McNabb is a two-year-old who got her first shot this week
- CDC says 20 million additional children are now eligible for vaccine
- McNabb family jumped at the opportunity to get two-year-old daughter vaccinated
Isla McNabb was born just months before the pandemic began, making much of her life a little out of the ordinary.
“At the time, they didn’t know how it affected kids or anything,” Isla’s dad, Jason McNabb, said. “When you have a little one with virtually no immunity to anything, it’s a scary situation to be in.”
Isla is now attending preschool two times a week for the first time. It’s a decision her parents, Amanda and Jason, had been considering but were waiting for COVID-19 cases to calm down.
“Once they started implementing masks, we found a preschool that was on board with a lot of the CDC regulations. She’s enjoyed being able to socialize with other kids now. Being a COVID kid, they’ve just been shut in for so long,” Jason McNabb said.
As COVID-19 vaccines became available to all kids 6 months and older, the McNabb family jumped at the opportunity to get Isla vaccinated.
“The quicker we can get her the vaccine, the better she will be protected against it but also the less likely she is to spread it to anybody else,” Jason McNabb said.
The shot didn’t seem to affect the adventurous two-year-old.
“As far as side effects and everything, she was just a little bit groggy later on in the day after she got her vaccine but other than that, one day later she’s perfectly fine, still learning and still being crazy,” Jason McNabb said.
With the virus being so unpredictable, the McNabb family said the vaccine serves as an extra layer of protection for their daughter.
“With mutations and different variants of COVID, you don’t know how bad the next one could potentially be,” McNabb said. “The vaccine will at least give them some protection against that, and it’s worth it.”
Isla received the Pfizer vaccine and will receive her second dose in three weeks, with the third round following.