Houston Chronicle Sunday

States can reserve vaccines for younger kids this week

- By Mike Stobbe

NEW YORK — U.S. health officials are setting the stage for a national COVID-19 vaccinatio­n campaign for younger children, inviting state officials to order doses before the shots are authorized.

Pfizer’s coronaviru­s vaccine is currently being given to people as young as 12 in the U.S. In the next three weeks, federal officials plan to discuss making smallerdos­e versions available to the nation’s 28 million children between the ages of 5 and 11.

To help states and cities prepare, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last week sent out a sevenpage document with guidance on how to set up expanded vaccinatio­n programs.

For example, it notes pharmacies in every state can give COVID-19 shots to children, but it clarifies that only doses prepared and packaged specifical­ly for children are to be used for those under 12.

It doesn’t speak to some thornier questions, however, such as how much school-based clinics should be relied on or whether kids should be required to get the shots as a condition of school attendance.

Those questions will have to be worked out in each state and city.

The guidance comes as communitie­s are gearing up for a new phase in the 10month-old effort to vaccinate as many people as possible against a virus that has killed more than 720,000 in the U.S.

The disease has been most dangerous to older adults, who have higher rates of death and hospitaliz­ation than children. But some kids are at risk for severe illness, and more than 540 U.S. children have died from COVID-19, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Just as important, health officials believe that vaccinatin­g children will reduce virus spread to vulnerable adults.

Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech are furthest along in researchin­g use of their vaccine in younger children. They say a twodose vaccine series — onethird as potent as the version giving to people over 12 years old — is safe and effective in 5- to 11-year-olds.

An independen­t expert panel that advises the Food and Drug Administra­tion is scheduled to publicly debate the evidence at a meeting in late October. If the FDA authorizes the kid-size doses, a different expert panel advising the CDC would take up the matter in early November, and then offer a recommenda­tion to the CDC.

It’s not yet clear how many people will get shots for their younger kids right away, said Dr. Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer of the Associatio­n of State and Territoria­l Health Officials.

“We’re going to have potentiall­y a very busy, and perhaps modestly chaotic time” initially, he said.

But there probably will not be the kind of heavy demand seen when shots first became available for adults, he added.

The new CDC guidance calls for shots to be given at the offices of pediatrici­ans and family-practice doctors, and at pharmacies, rural health clinics and federally qualified health centers.

The CDC discussed the option of vaccinatio­n clinics at schools but stopped short of endorsing that as a primary way to get kids vaccinated. School clinics are logistical­ly appealing, but many parents may not be comfortabl­e with the idea, Plescia said.

The guidance also warns health care providers to only use doses that have been prepared especially for kids, and not try to fraction adult doses, Plescia noted.

CDC guidance said immunizati­on program managers can start ordering doses Wednesday, though vials wouldn’t be delivered until the FDA and CDC sign off.

When the coronaviru­s vaccines were first authorized in December, the U.S. government prioritize­d having hospitals and pharmacies administer them. Some office-based physicians felt left out.

 ?? Tribune News Service file photo ?? Health officials believe that vaccinatin­g children will reduce the coronaviru­s’ spread to vulnerable adults.
Tribune News Service file photo Health officials believe that vaccinatin­g children will reduce the coronaviru­s’ spread to vulnerable adults.

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