WASHINGTON, Oct. 21 (BUS) – Children ages 5 to 11 will soon be able to get a COVID-19 shot at their pediatrician’s office, local pharmacy, and possibly even their school, the White House announced Wednesday, as it announced plans for… It is expected. Get permission to administer a Pfizer injection for primary school children within weeks.
Federal regulators will meet over the next two weeks to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of giving low doses to nearly 28 million children in that age group, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
Within hours of formal approval, which is expected after the Food and Drug Administration’s signature and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s advisory committee meeting on November 2-3, millions of doses will begin arriving at providers across the country, along with the tiny needles needed To inject young children.
Within days of that, the vaccine will be ready for widespread use.
“We are completing operational planning to ensure that immunizations for children ages 5 to 11 are available, easy and convenient,” said Jeff Zentes, White House coordinator on COVID-19. “We will be ready, awaiting the decision of the Food and Drug Administration and the CDC.”
The Pfizer vaccine requires two doses three weeks apart and a two-week wait for full protection to begin, which means the young children in line will be completely covered by Christmas.
Some parents can hardly wait.
Dr. said.
“Judging by the number of calls, I think we’re going to be under attack in the first several weeks,” said Ranson, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Justin Shady, a Chicago-based film and television writer, said his 6-year-old daughter Gray was nervous when he told her she would get the shots soon. But he bribed her with a trip to Disney World, and “it’s all there.”
Shady said the family loves to travel, “We really want to get back in the hammock of seeing the world.”
As for children under five, Pfizer and Moderna are studying their vaccines in children up to 6 months of age, with results expected later in the year.
The Biden administration has indicated that expanding injections for children under 12 won’t look like the start of a nationwide release of the vaccine 10 months ago, when limited doses and insufficient capacity meant an arduous wait for many Americans.
Officials said the country now has an ample supply of the Pfizer vaccine to vaccinate soon-to-be eligible children, and they have been working for months to ensure the shots are widely available. The White House said about 15 million doses will be shipped to providers across the United States in the first week after approval.
The White House said more than 25,000 pediatricians and primary care providers have already signed up to distribute the vaccine to elementary school children, in addition to tens of thousands of pharmacies already offering the injections to adults.
Hundreds of school and community clinics will also be funded and supported by FEMA to help speed up the process.
In addition to doctors’ offices, schools are likely popular locations for filming.
In Maryland, state officials have offered to help schools set up vaccination clinics. Denver public schools are planning group vaccination events for young children, along with smaller clinics that provide vaccinations during the school day and in the evening. The Chicago Department of Public Health works closely with schools, which have already hosted vaccination events for students 12 and older and their families.
The White House is also preparing an extensive campaign to educate parents and children about the safety and accessibility of footage. As was the case for adult immunizations, the administration believes that trusted messengers – teachers, doctors, and community leaders – will be important to encouraging immunizations.
Lisa Reed, medical director of family medicine at MAHEC, a safety net company in western North Carolina serving patients from rural Appalachians and more urban communities such as the tourist city of Asheville, said it would make an effort to attract some families to the board.
Reade said she lives “in a community that has a lot of hesitation about vaccines, unfortunately.”
“Some have less health knowledge or are from more reluctant ethnic groups in general” because of a history of mistrust, she said. She said Asheville has a large population of well-educated adults who have long been skeptical about the vaccine.
While children are at lower risk than older adults of getting seriously ill from COVID-19, at least 637 people age 18 or younger have died from the virus in the United States, according to the CDC. Six million American children have been infected, the American Academy of Pediatrics said, a million of them since early September amid the spread of the more contagious delta type.
Health officials believe that expanding the vaccination campaign will not only limit the alarming number of infections among children, but also reduce the spread of the virus to vulnerable adults. It could also help schools stay open and get back on track, and contribute to the nation’s broader recovery from the pandemic.
“Coronavirus has also disrupted the lives of our children. It has made school more difficult, disrupted their ability to see friends and family, and made youth sports more difficult,” US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy told NBC. “By vaccinating our children, we have the potential to protect them, but also restore All those very important activities for our kids.”
Murthy said the administration, which imposes vaccine mandates for millions of adults, is leaving it up to state and local officials to decide whether to require schoolchildren to get vaccinated. But he said such measures would be “a reasonable matter to consider”.
“It’s also consistent with what we’ve done for other childhood vaccines, such as measles, mumps and polio,” he said.
The United States has purchased 65 million doses of Pfizer’s pediatric dose, which is expected to be a third of the dose given to adults and teens, according to officials. They will be shipped in smaller packages of about 100 doses each, so more providers can deliver them, and they won’t need the super-cold storage the adult version initially used.
About 219 million Americans ages 12 and older, or 66 percent of the total population, have received the COVID-19 shot, and nearly 190 million have been fully vaccinated.
MI