“My first thought is that I would wait until I delivered,” said labor and delivery nurse Rachel Guthrie.
Guthrie is used to difficult decisions being pregnant during the pandemic. Even when it came to getting the COVID-19 vaccine while in her third trimester.
“I went ahead and got it at 35 weeks pregnant, I got my first dose, of the Pfizer vaccine, then I got my second dose at 38 weeks,” said Guthrie.
The 35-year-old read the studies, talked to her doctors, and didn’t look back. She’s now taking another leap of faith, this time, for two of her children.
“I felt comfortable that the benefits outweighed the risks even for this younger population,” said Guthrie.
Guthrie’s 2-year-old daughter Charlotte and 3-year-old son Ollie will be among the first 750 children to get the Moderna vaccine. The trial is just days from getting underway.
“The more we can tell them we’ve tested the vaccine and see no problems, hopefully, we’ll get more of this segment of the population treated,” said Dr. Steve Plimpton, who is running the child vaccine trial in the Valley.
On Thursday, Pfizer announced the company would also be kicking off its own study aimed at children, enrolling more than 4,500 in the trial.
Guthrie says despite her good intention, she’s already received a message from one person who disagreed.
“She was anonymous, and she didn’t want to tell me who she was, but she definitely had strong feelings that I was doing something wrong for kiddos that can’t speak for themselves,” said Guthrie.
“But in my eyes, I’m doing this because I love them and I want them to be safe. I want them to be able to go back to normal and our kids to go back to normal at school.”
Officials behind the study say it should be complete by the end of summer with hopes of submitting the data to the FDA for final approval before fall.
