Iowa’s largest grocery chain is now offering COVID-19 vaccines to young people, ages 12 to 15. Hy-Vee says the Pfizer vaccine is available free, but kids do need their parents’ consent and a parent needs to accompany them for the shot.

Dr. Joel Waddell, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Unity Point Health in Des Moines, says there’s much more to consider with a vaccine other than just protecting children against developing severe cases of COVID because it will do that. It will also help with mental health and let kids start to return to a sense of normal, like visiting friends and family and even going to summer camps.

In trials, of the children who got the vaccine, zero contracted the virus and there were no serious side effects related to the vaccine.