Nov. 4, 2021 — 1000’s of kids between the ages of 5 and 11 have already obtained a COVID-19 vaccine, lower than 2 days for the reason that photographs have been licensed.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday referred to as the vaccine approval “a large step ahead to additional speed up our path out of this pandemic.”
“For folks throughout this nation, it is a day of aid and celebration,” he stated. “After virtually 18 months of anxious fear each time your little one had a sniffle or began to cough, properly, now you can defend them from this horrible virus.”
Late Tuesday, the CDC gave approval for this age group — made up of greater than 28 million youngsters — to get two doses of the Pfizer shot, at one-third of an grownup dose.
Pfizer research present that its vaccine is 90.7% efficient in preventing COVID-19 in children ages 5 to 11. Not one of the youngsters who have been studied have had any serious unwanted side effects, in accordance with Pfizer information posted by the FDA.
Swift Motion
Texas Youngsters’s Hospital, the most important youngsters’s hospital within the nation, is one COVID-19 vaccine supplier that has hit the bottom operating in efforts to vaccinate the newly eligible age group.
The hospital started giving COVID-19 shots to 5- to 11-year-olds at 7 a.m. Wednesday.
The youngsters have been welcomed with balloons, stickers, and support canine to assist ease any fears.
James Versalovic, MD, COVID-19 command co-leader and pathologist-in-chief at Texas Youngsters’s Hospital in Houston, described the environment as “joyful.”
“It is clear that folks are relieved that the day has arrived,” he stated. “Simply seeing it on their faces, and seeing the youngsters come all through the day, they’re keen as properly to get vaccinated. Actually, we haven’t needed to twist any arms.”
Versalovic says hospital employees are simply as delighted as dad and mom, particularly after the extremely transmissible Delta variant wreaked havoc on this age group over the summer time.
“It permits us to perform the mission of prevention of COVID-19 in youngsters underneath 12 for the primary time on this pandemic,” he stated.
“The Delta surge has had an incredible affect on youngsters as a result of they have been totally unvaccinated underneath the age of 12, in order that they have been completely weak.”
The hospital says it has already scheduled practically 39,000 vaccine appointments for teenagers ages 5 to 11 from now by means of Thanksgiving.
Quite a few COVID-19 vaccine providers throughout the nation are additionally making ready to supply photographs to this new age group within the coming days.
Youngsters’s Hospital Colorado will partner with the Colorado Division of Public Well being and Atmosphere to host the primary of recurring COVID-19 vaccine clinics for 5- to 11-year-olds this Friday.
Pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens have additionally begun scheduling COVID-19 vaccine appointments for youngsters.
“The arrival of vaccines for kids really is a landmark second,” U.S. Surgeon Common Vivek Murthy, MD, stated at a White Home briefing Wednesday.
“Finally, we wish each little one in our nation to be saved from COVID and to have the ability to get again to their lives — sleepovers and birthday events, faculty performs, soccer video games, visits with buddies and grandparents, and a lot extra.”
Rollout Will Speed up
The vaccine rollout will probably be “totally up and operating” early subsequent week, with over 20,000 vaccine suppliers planning to present photographs to this new age group, in accordance with White Home COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients.
The White Home is taking measures to make sure dad and mom have entry to the right details about the brand new kid-size vaccines.
“We’re establishing boards and city halls to reply mum or dad questions, together with a city corridor this Sunday by dozens of religion communities,” Murthy stated. “We’re additionally working with medical teams to encourage medical doctors to speak to their sufferers concerning the vaccine and to look on native media retailers.”
Murthy additionally warned dad and mom to be careful for vaccine misinformation floating round on-line.
“Many dad and mom are already seeing inaccurate claims on social media, textual content threads, and of their inboxes,” he stated.
“I consider each mum or dad has a proper to the facts, to allow them to make selections for his or her youngsters primarily based on accurate scientific data,” Murthy stated. “I am asking dad and mom to please search solutions from credible sources — their physician, their native hospital, the native well being division, or the CDC.”
He famous that he and his spouse will probably be taking their 5-year-old son to get a COVID-19 vaccine within the coming days.
“We will probably be so grateful that we will extra confidently ship him out into the world, realizing that he has sturdy protection towards COVID-19.”
Employees author Damian McNamara contributed to this story.
