A steady number of COVID patients at The University of Kansas Health System today. 18 with the active virus are being treated, the same as Friday. Only two are vaccinated. Seven patients are in the ICU, the same as Friday. Two are on ventilators, down from four Friday. 29 other patients are still hospitalized because of COVID but are out of the acute infection phase, up from 27 on Friday. That’s a total of 47 patients, up from 45 Friday.
On today’s Morning Medical Update, we looked at the psychology behind whether or not to get the vaccine. Dr. Danielle Johnson, a psychologist at The University of Kansas Health System, joined with how to discuss the vaccine, what to say to someone still on the fence, and how to best educate others. She also had advice for parents hesitant to get their kids vaccinated when it’s approved and what to say to your kids about the shot.

Dr. Johnson helps a lot of children ages 4 to 17 dealing with depression, anxiety, PTSD, trauma, and a whole host of things that keep them unsafe in the community. Many are treated at the health system’s Marillac inpatient facility. They had to severely limit services when the pandemic broke out, but that didn’t mean kids’ mental health problems went away. Many got worse, especially with isolation from friends when schools switched to in-home learning. She says kids have been struggling with a whole range of stressors that adults also struggle with, but with less support. Now comes a vaccine which has the potential to let schools get back to normal, without masks, but a recent nationwide survey found only about a fourth of parents are willing to get their kids vaccinated right away. The rest are taking a wait and see approach. She says schools are the safest places for kids because everyone is wearing a mask. Without vaccinations, she says the masking and social distancing could go on indefinitely. Parents have a lot of reasons for hesitating on the kids’ vaccine, many of them political. Dr. Johnson feels it’s important for parents to get their information from trusted scientific sources and not just from a YouTube video that supports their beliefs. She cautions that we can’t judge those people or argue with them. We must have a conversation with them and find out the source of their fears and beliefs. As for explaining to your kids, she feels you must tell them the truth, that the COVID vaccine is just one of many they must get from time to time to keep them safe, just like wearing your seat belt keeps you safe in the car. She says some people in healthcare have let the issue become politicized and thus have a hard time separating the science they embrace every day from what they feel is an infringement on their personal freedom. She thinks those people need to hear from someone they trust about what those freedoms actually mean, how they impact themselves, their families and others, and how their family would feel if they were no longer with us. To those who say, “God gave me an immune system to fight these things off, I don’t need a vaccine,” she says “God also gave us science to understand how these things work. Science can really direct us to make decisions that are healthy. Trusting science, as we have all of our lives is a great response.” Her best advice for helping your kids deal with the stress of the whole pandemic is to let them know you are always there for them, and to take the time every day to find out what they are thinking and how they feel. She says getting them vaccinated will help them feel safe.
Dana Hawkinson, MD, medical director of Infection Prevention and Control at The University of Kansas Health System, was among the first to get his two kids vaccinated, live on this program, as soon as it was available for their age group. He strongly believes in the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines, and reminds parents, “We need to be the adults,” when making sound medical decisions for our kids. He believes boosters for the general population will be coming, but says those who got their vaccine last January and February still have very good protection. He adds that the unvaccinated have a five times higher chance of having a positive COVID test after infection then those who are vaccinated. For those who had a bad reaction to the vaccine compared to those who didn’t, he says there’s no correlation between vaccine symptoms and its effectiveness. Some people simply react differently. For those who say they can’t get the vaccine for medical reasons, he thinks they should revisit the issue with a doctor, as there are very few conditions that would keep you from this vaccine. He urges all parents to get their kids vaccinated for COVID, as well as all other childhood diseases, as soon as the vaccine is available.