Newswise — MAYWOOD, IL – Loyola Medicine is now offering the COVID-19 vaccine to children ages 5 to 11 at multiple clinic sites, including mobile vaccine clinics. The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine was authorized for emergency use for children ages 5 to 11. It is a two-dose series taken three weeks apart. Each dose will be 1/3 the dosage of the adolescent/adult vaccine.
Loyola Medicine is distributing COVID-19 vaccines to new and existing patients. Online scheduling is available at loyolamedicine.org/vaccines. Pediatrics department chairperson Jerold Stirling, MD, reminds parents that as families prepare to gather for the holidays, "Vaccination is important not only for children. A good percentage of children are asymptomatic while infected with COVID-19 and run high risk of spreading it."
Loyola Medicine has been vaccinating children ages 12 and up since May of 2021, and health system leaders and physicians are confident that the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is safe for patients. As of October 2021, more than 11.1 million adolescents have been vaccinated against COVID-19 with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 was 90 – 100% effective in clinical trials and works against Delta and other known variants.
Loyola is also committed to delivering the vaccine in underserved communities across Chicago and west Suburban Cook County. Loyola Medicine’s pediatric mobile unit, which is funded through generous donations, will be visiting area schools to distribute the vaccine starting with Roswell B. Mason Elementary school in North Lawndale on Thursday, November 18. Julie O'Keefe, MD, said, "Minority communities have been hit so hard by COVID, especially Black and Latinx communities, which have also experienced high levels of vaccine hesitance."
In addition, Loyola's Community Health and Well-being team will be setting up mobile vaccine clinics at schools, local Catholic parishes and other community-centered events to provide education and information to families about getting vaccinated. They will be at St. Eulalia in Maywood on Tuesday, November 23 to distribute vaccines for children and adults during the parish's annual turkey distribution.
To request a visit from a Loyola Medicine COVID-19 mobile vaccination clinic, please apply here.
Video of the Loyola Medicine pediatric mobile unit and stills of a mobile vaccination clinic at this Dropbox link.
For more information on COVID-19 vaccines at Loyola Medicine, visit loyolamedicine.org/coronavirus-preparedness-at-loyola-medicine.
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About Loyola Medicine
Loyola Medicine, a member of Trinity Health, is a nationally ranked academic, quaternary care system based in Chicago's western suburbs. The three-hospital system includes Loyola University Medical Center, Gottlieb Memorial Hospital and MacNeal Hospital, as well as convenient locations offering primary care, specialty care and immediate care services from more than 1,800 physicians throughout Cook, Will and DuPage counties. Loyola is a 547-licensed-bed hospital in Maywood that includes the William G. & Mary A. Ryan Center for Heart & Vascular Medicine, the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, a Level 1 trauma center, Illinois's largest burn center, a certified comprehensive stroke center and a children’s hospital. Loyola also trains the next generation of caregivers through its academic affiliation with Loyola University Chicago’s Stritch School of Medicine and Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing. Gottlieb is a 247-licensed-bed community hospital in Melrose Park with the newly renovated Judd A. Weinberg Emergency Department, the Loyola Center for Metabolic Surgery and Bariatric Care and the Loyola Cancer Care & Research facility at the Marjorie G. Weinberg Cancer Center. MacNeal is a 374-licensed-bed teaching hospital in Berwyn with advanced medical, surgical and psychiatric services, acute rehabilitation, an inpatient skilled nursing facility and a 68-bed behavioral health program and community clinics. Loyola Medical Group, a team of primary and specialty care physicians, offers care at over 15 Chicago-area locations. For more information, visit loyolamedicine.org. You can also follow Loyola Medicine on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.
About Trinity Health
Trinity Health is one of the largest multi-institutional Catholic health care delivery systems in the nation, serving diverse communities that include more than 30 million people across 22 states. Trinity Health includes 92 hospitals, as well as 100 continuing care locations that include PACE programs, senior living facilities, and home care and hospice services. Its continuing care programs provide nearly 2.5 million visits annually. Based in Livonia, Mich., and with annual operating revenues of $18.8 billion and assets of $30.5 billion, the organization returns $1.3 billion to its communities annually in the form of charity care and other community benefit programs. Trinity Health employs about 123,000 colleagues, including 6,800 employed physicians and clinicians. Committed to those who are poor and underserved in its communities, Trinity Health is known for its focus on the country's aging population. As a single, unified ministry, the organization is the innovator of Senior Emergency Departments, the largest not-for-profit provider of home health care services — ranked by number of visits — in the nation, as well as the nation’s leading provider of PACE (Program of All Inclusive Care for the Elderly) based on the number of available programs. For more information, visit trinity-health.org. You can also follow Trinity Health on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.
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