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Duke Experts Discuss COVID Vaccines for Children, Myths Aimed at Spanish-Speaking Communities

Pediatrician says her own children will be vaccinated as soon as FDA issues approval

spanish language briefing on vaccines

Three Duke experts -- two pediatricians and a sociologist -- discussed the progress on COVID vaccines for children, as well as misinformation directed at Latin communities, during a briefing for Spanish-speaking media.

“I am grateful that there is a vaccine that works in such an efficacious and safe manner," said Gabriela Maradiaga-Panayotti M.D., a pediatrician with Duke Health. "The first day that I can I’m going to take my own kids, who are 7 and 9, to get vaccinated. I would never recommend something to you, to your family, that I wouldn’t do with my own.”

The briefing was the latest in a continuing series Duke has held in Spanish to make reliable, science-backed expertise more readily available to Spanish-speaking communities in North Carolina and beyond.

Watch the briefing below.

Meet the experts

Eugenia Conde-Dudding, Ph.D.
Eugenia Conde is a sociologist with the Samuel Dubois Cook Center on Social Equity at Duke. She studies social inequalities, health disparities, teen pregnancy, and statistical methods with a focus on missing data and methodologies to study communities of color.

Viviana Martinez-Bianchi, M.D.
Viviana Martinez-Bianchi is associate professor in Family Medicine and Community Health, where she is a primary care physician and director of health equity. She specializes in health disparities, access to health care, women's health, Latino health care, chronic disease management, and socioeconomic determinants of health.

Gabriela M. Maradiaga Panayotti, M.D.
Gabriela M. Maradiaga Panayotti is an assistant professor of pediatrics at Duke. A fellow at the American Academy of Pediatrics, she specializes in ambulatory medical care for children, evidence-based pediatrics and obesity in children. She co-leads the Latinx Advocacy Team & Interdisciplinary Network for COVID-19.