Join our discussion on why vaccinating children is critical for a safe community

You, our readers, have told us that coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic is important to you. In September, we re-committed to help our region stay safe and to get the straight facts about COVID-19 cases in our communities, our state and country. As part of that commitment, this Sunday’s Ideas & Voices is designed to help answer any questions and address any hesitation you may have about the recently approved COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.

As the new Community Impact Editor, I’m also excited to moderate my first Community Conversation — a live discussion with trusted, local experts — alongside our COVID-19 reporter, Jordan Laird, at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 17. We’ll dig into the facts about vaccination with:

Katherine Lambes, MD, a local pediatrician with the Community Health Centers of Greater Dayton and mother of a vaccinated 8-year-old.
Alonzo Patterson III, MD, a local pediatrician with PriMed Physicians.
Adam Mezoff, MD, chief medical officer at Dayton Children’s.
Hillary O’Neil MS, RRT, RCP, specialty pediatrics manager at Dayton Children’s.

You can watch the discussion via the Dayton Daily News Facebook Page and learn more on the Facebook event.

Community Conversations is a Dayton Daily News series of moderated panel discussions on topics important to the Dayton region. They were started last year, in the middle of the pandemic, to help make these discussions accessible to everyone.

We encourage the audience to ask any questions they may have about the vaccine during the live discussion. There will be time made available to participants to answer questions from viewers. You can also send questions to jordan.laird@coxinc.com ahead of the Community Conversation that we may include in the Q&A.

If you’re unable to watch the event live, a recording of the discussion will also be made available for you to view on YouTube and on www.daytondailynews.com.