While there is not a vaccine yet for COVID-19, there are vaccines to protect children and adults against many serious illnesses as reminded during National Immunization Month.

The Iowa Department of Education has a set of required vaccines for children enrolling in kindergarten, seventh grade and twelfth grade. These requirements have not been waived in lieu of COVID-19, and pediatrician Dr. Cody Silker of Guthrie County Hospital and Clinics says the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends families still go in for the annual well visits.

Silker shares how visits have adapted to the pandemic, “We are taking precautions, though of course at our clinic like at many other clinics and we ask that everybody wears masks. Try to have just one parent with the children instead of the whole family just to kind of decrease exposure. Also we clean obviously, sanitize, we’re wearing masks and goggles and face masks too, to protect so we’re going through those precautions of course. Sick visits we really try to limit those, kids who have fevers and are really sick, I try to do a lot of telehealth with those kids so we don’t have a lot of kids coming in with fevers and everything we really try to limit them by doing more telehealth visits with those folks.”

Silker is available by appointment at the Stuart clinic and the specialty clinic in Guthrie Center, and she mentions that face masks are provided for those who don’t have one.