The Laurelton Building!

500 Helendale Road, Suite LLE-10

Rochester, NY 14609

(585) 473-7028

Covid-19 Information

Reasons to vaccinate against COVID 19

  1. We will not get to herd immunity without vaccination. You can get COVID 19 more than once. With the delta strain, an unvaccinated person is 2.34 times more likely to catch COVID 19 than a vaccinated person and it can be WORSE than the first infection.
  2. No previous vaccine has been studied and scrutinized to the degree of COVID 19(Sars CoV 2) vaccine prior to being released. The risks and benefits of vaccination are clear and have become evident through the millions and millions of vaccinated people worldwide.
  3. If you are NOT vaccinated you have a 3 times greater chance of becoming infected with COVID 19 and an 8 times greater chance of having symptoms and a 25 times greater chance of being hospitalized from COVID 19 than those that are vaccinated.
  4. Children who get COVID 19 can get sick very quickly. Kids with the Delta strain are 2.75 times more likely to become hospitalized from COVID 19 than they would have been with the original strain from last year.
  5. Delta strain causes the viral load in the nose and throat to be 1000-1200 times higher than the original strain. Vaccinated individuals will initially also have a similar viral load (so wear your masks) but the viral load drops quickly(as soon as 2-3 days) as the immune system kicks in from vaccination so symptoms are stopped quickly and are more mild so contagion is much shorter than the 14-21 days that have been reported with Delta strain.
  6. Children have a 9 times higher rate of infection and transmission with Delta strain as last year's COVID 19 strain.
  7. The mutation rate is inversely related to vaccination rate. This means the more we vaccinate, the less likely it is we will have new mutations. We are on the verge of the emergence of a new variant that will set us back to square one due to low vaccination rates. This will mean lock down and closing schools and businesses again. Nobody wants that to happen.

We Would Like to See You!

We are currently seeing all well patients on our office and we encourage you to  schedule your child’s sports/school physicals  now if they have not been seen yet this year.

We have adopted the following policies to keep our patients, their families, and our staff safe over the past many months. These practices will continue until public health recommendations change.

  • All staff will be masked during your visit and we ask that  all parents/caregivers, patients above the age of two also please wear a face covering at all times while they are in our office.  Children under the age of two should NOT be wearing a mask or face covering as this creates a suffocation risk. Although mask mandates have been removed for many businesses, they are still in place in ALL healthcare settings.
  • We are asking families, that, if at all possible, they come to appointments with only the patient(s) and one parent/guardian. Please leave siblings at home when at all possible.
  • We are staggering the coming and going of families to reduce the number of people in the waiting room.
  • All exam rooms are disinfected thoroughly after each appointment. We ask that you and your child sit only on the patient chairs or the exam table in the rooms while you wait.
  • PLEASE let us know if you or your child have any symptoms of illness or known possible exposure to COVID-19 before you enter our office.
  • In the interest of less paper we are encouraging that the  pre-visit paperwork for all children ages 0-11 be completed on the patient portal prior to their visit.  If you are not active as an “authorized representative” on your child’s/children’s portal(s) please call the office to be added, if you are a patient 18 or over you should be doing this on your own patient portal so please contact the office for that. In addition, all books and magazines have been removed from the rooms at this time.
  • For any illnesses involving  respiratory issues  we still encourage you to schedule a Telemedicine visit with us. Please call the office to schedule these appointments and for additional information. Routine follow ups and behavioral or emotional consults may be done in office or via telemedicine, unless the doctor has requested an in person visit.

As with any preventive measures they only work if they are followed. Please help us to keep you and your family safe by respecting our guidelines. We appreciate all the community’s efforts that have allowed our area to continue to see low levels of spread. We will keep moving forward if we all work together.

COVID immunizations:

Goodman Pediatrics encourages everyone eligible to get vaccinated. You can find a test site near you at  https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov  “get vaccinated”.

COVID Testing:

Free state testing sites have now closed. To find a testing site near you please visit  https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov  and select “find a test site”. There are numerous options available.

We are not doing any rapid COVID testing in our office at this time. Covid testing needed for travel, college, or employment should be scheduled at a community testing site.

For additional guidance please see the following resources:

Announcement

Flu and other respiratory illness season is here. Please schedule your child's flu vaccine

We recommend ALL children get vaccinated for COVID as soon as they are eligible. Call our office for appointment availability.