DENVER — Now that the Pfizer vaccine has been approved for adolescents age 12 and up, parents have questions and Denver7 is seeking answers.
On Thursday, Denver7's Shannon Ogden sat down for a virtual town hall with state leaders about the vaccine as it relates to teenagers.
Gov. Jared Polis, Dr. Eric France, the chief medical officer at the CDPHE, and Brandy Emily, the immunization branch deputy director at CDPHE, gave their insights.
All three agreed, getting the vaccine to as many eligible people as possible is a priority.
"As a parent, if I would get one vaccine for my kid, this would be it," Polis said. "By far, the highest risk of them being hospitalized or even dying right now in Colorado is COVID-19."
A new study by the Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that only 29% of parents plan to get their children vaccinated right away, 32% said they're going to wait and see what happens, 15% said they would only have their children vaccinated if their school required it and 19% said they do not want to vaccinate their children at all.
The governor responded to those number by pointing out that children are becoming the most at-risk.
"The biggest group of increase of hospitalizations we're seeing are young people, teenagers and 20-somethings," he said. "The vaccine has brought the hospitalizations down to a very low number. It'll do the same for kids."
You can watch the full town hall in the player below.