When Santiago arrived at the Pereira Rossell pediatric vaccination center the first that he told his mother it was that he did not want to be vaccinated: “Mom, I’m scared“He confessed through tears. A boy passing by with his shirt rolled up and a cotton wrapped in the arm noticed the situation and sought to calm him down: “Nothing hurts”, I explain.
The short but intense wait was making him more and more nervous. Although the other boys his age left calm and happier than they had entered -especially when they received an ice cream as a reward-, to Santiago there was nothing that could calm him down. His mother’s attempts were covered by new reproaches and claims to leave. The sympathy and stories of the vaccinators were forgotten in the face of the insistent question of how much the injection would hurt and how she should position her arm. And the suit of a Channel 12 journalist, whom he mistook for President Luis Lacalle Pou, was enough to distract him for just a second because as soon as he headed towards the room, he remembered the fear he had of being punctured.
The boy paid attention to everything that was happening around him, but at the same time he was still afraid. Next to him were four more people.: his mother, who was holding him in her lap, his younger brother, who was watching attentively, the person in charge of the vaccination clinic and a nurse. The vaccinator didn’t know what to do anymore, so she decided to offer him the ice cream – which all the other children got after getting vaccinated – a few minutes ahead of time. However, stage fright won the arm wrestling for the child, who was vaccinated to tears.
“That a child cries, is afraid, is distressed, it is normal in a vaccine. It happens to the greats. But the staff is highly trained and they handled the specific situations that have arisen well“, he assured The Observer Victoria Lafluf, director of Pereira Rossell.
Diego Dominguez
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Santino, on his mother’s lap, Milagros, scared by the covid-19 vaccine
The feeling of the children outside was quite the opposite. Santiago left with his ice cream and kept insisting that his arm had hurt “a little”, but for Martina and Lara the vaccine “didn’t bother anything” and that place was paradiseSW. One of them, as soon as she left the vaccination center, headed towards the hammocks that were over the entrance.
—Don’t go outside alone— a vaccinator told him.
—No, it’s because my dad and my cousin are here— The younger answered, with a half smile drawn on her face.
The idea is that the place “invites the vaccination experience to be positive and not lived as a negative moment,” explained Lafluf. “I hope that when they leave they remember more that they ate an ice cream and rocked than the moment of the vaccine injection “he added.
Diego Dominguez
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Others went to the hammocks as soon as they left the vaccination center
Some men sought to give themselves the injection as quickly as possible to go to the freezer for the ice cream that Pereira Rossell offered them for free after they were vaccinated. Others, like Matías, preferred to put themselves in the role of adults and sit in the shade to read a children’s magazine. “We had covid-19 at home and we already knew that this was to protect ourselves from catching it again, but also to take care of the other. There is a reality: you are at risk, but you are taking care of the other too. It’s not just thinking about us, but about those around us. If everyone did it, it would be easier and less risky to go back to face-to-face (from schools) in March“Andrea, his mother, told The Observer.
Asked about the decision to vaccinate her child, assured that he didn’t hesitate for a second: “These are risks we have to take. With all vaccines there are risks“.
Unlike AndreaGuzmán, a man in his fifties, was calmer and admitted that he had his doubts. Then he understood that the anticovid vaccine, like those that have been used to combat other diseases, helps “cure” even the smallest.
“I do not know if I am in favor of putting inside the child things that one does not know. But they heal, they heal. I vaccinate for a reason. You always have the doubt, even to vaccinate yourself, but it is known that the vaccine cures. All the things invented half quickly and that get into your body give rise to doubts, but Historically, vaccines have cured diseases. They (because of the children) never want to be vaccinated, they say it hurts, but not having the vaccine is one of the main forms of contagion,” he said.
Diego Dominguez
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The 15-minute wait after the vaccine became more bearable for those who entertained themselves with magazines
Each of those responsible who accompanied the children between the ages of 5 and 11 who went to the hospital to be vaccinated on Wednesday had to write their identity card, clarify the relationship and leave a cell phone number. Most of them argued that they were there in search of making the invasion of covid-19 less harmful in the body, even though the vaccines are not 100% effective in preventing its spread. This same logic applies to the flu vaccine.
That’s how he understood Cristian, a neighbor who traveled from Santa Catalina, immunized with the three doses and also with the flu vaccine. The man preferred to wait outside as soon as the registration was over and next to him he saw a child speed by who told his friend that he was going to die after giving himself the pediatric dose. Their children instead, they had another perception and they were receptive The agenda for their age group was barely opened on December 29. The most interested of them was Yanel, an 8-year-old boy, whose godfather died of covid-19 without being vaccinated.
“They have a culture that you have to get vaccinated. You already know that in front of us we have the neighbors in quarantine, with positive covid. We talked to them and told them if they preferred to be like this or vaccinated and calm down and my children are big and they understand. With the vaccine, it’s always going to be milder than the stuff they saw on TV. The man’s godfather died of covid and he hit him very hard, so he knows he can’t have any risk. He was the first to be scheduled to be vaccinated,” he said.
Natalia, another mother who was in tune with her daughter Lara’s clothing, He answered that they were never uncertain about the vaccine. “Once we said yes. She (for her daughter) had covid in March and accepted. I have all three (vaccines) and if there is a fourth, I also give it to myself. We talk to your pediatrician, who cares for her since she was a baby, and advised us to move on“, he explained to The Observer.
Diego Dominguez
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Until noon this Wednesday, almost 200 minor children, from 5 to 11 years old, had been vaccinated
Although the girl’s illness was mild, the family understood that it was best to access Pfizer’s pediatric drug, online at recommendations he gave to The Observer Dr. Lafluf this Wednesday. “The vaccine prevents cases that are serious and we understand that this is why it is important for the child’s perspective in their social environment. We invite parents or people who still have doubts about scheduling to seek a qualified opinion that they trust to really see what the concerns are. It is natural to be afraid, that doubts arise, and more so when we talk about our children, so I think the most important thing is to go through the moment to remove those doubts and take the step to schedule“said the director of the hospital.
Lafluf noted that while most of the children represent asymptomatic or “few symptom” cases, there are also comorbidities that can encourage severe cases. At the same time, he valued the vaccination center as a “flagship” and reviewed the process that led to molding it as a children’s and attractive environment for minors. “It was thought globally as a vaccination for children. From the moment the child enters until he leaves, we think of each one of the things with ‘child’s glasses’: what would they like to find, from the colors you see outside, the games, the hammocks, until the fact of complying with the protocols that correspond to this vaccine with its registration and its subsequent waiting time “.
Until noon this Wednesday, nearly 200 children had been vaccinated at the hospital, on an agenda of 635. For the next few days, the Pereira Rossell authorities expect a higher demand.
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