A young girl getting vaccinated.Photo: Getty
The vaccine is the first to protect this younger age group against COVID-19, and an independent advisory committee of experts “overwhelmingly voted in favor” of authorizing its use afterclinical trials showed that it was 90.7% effectivein preventing symptomatic illness. A panel from the Centers for Disease Control will meet this week to give the final approval before the rollout can begin.
The White House, though, said that they may not be able to instantly begin giving out shots once it is approved, and asked for patience from parents as they figure out the distribution process.
“We’re talking about a specialized vaccine for children,” Jeff Zients, the White House’s COVID-19 response coordinator,told NPR. “We are hard at work, planning the logistics and making sure that vaccines will be available at tens of thousands of sites that parents and kids know and trust.”
This younger age group will get smaller doses of the vaccine — 10 micrograms compared to 30 for people aged 12 and up — and it will be administered using smaller needles. Organizing that and getting the doses to vaccination sites will take some time, but it’s a priority for the White House.
“Our goal is to get as much vaccine as possible pre-positioned, as we await CDC’s decision mid next week,” Zients said.
RELATED VIDEO: FDA Grants Full Approval to Pfizer’s COVID Vaccine
The White House said that they have purchased enough vaccine doses to inoculate the 28 million kids aged 5 to 11 years old in the U.S. Recent pollingfrom the Kaiser Family Foundationshowed some hesitancy among parents, however, with just three in ten saying that they would immediately vaccinate their 5- to 11-year-olds once the vaccine is approved. One-third of parents said they would wait to see how the vaccine is working, and the final third said they will not vaccinate their kids.
Though children are at a lower risk of severe disease and hospitalization from COVID-19, they can still get sick and pass the virus on to others.More children have been hospitalizedsince the emergence of the delta variant, and currently,children are testing positive for COVID-19at a disproportionately high rate. During the week of Oct. 14, those 18 and younger accounted for 25.5% of all cases in the U.S.,according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, despite making up just 22.2% of the total population.
As information about thecoronavirus pandemicrapidly changes, PEOPLE is committed to providing the most recent data in our coverage. Some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. For the latest on COVID-19, readers are encouraged to use online resources from theCDC,WHOandlocal public health departments.PEOPLE has partnered with GoFundMeto raise money for the COVID-19 Relief Fund, a GoFundMe.org fundraiser to support everything from frontline responders to families in need, as well as organizations helping communities. For more information or to donate, clickhere.
source: people.com
