YOUNGEST CHILDREN COULD GET COVID-19 SHOTS IN LATE JUNE
Kids under age 5 last group to become approved for doses
A top federal health official, anticipating that regulators will soon authorize coronavirus vaccines for children younger than 5, said Thursday that the first doses could be administered as early as June 21, and that states, pharmacies and community health centers can begin ordering them from the Biden administration today.
Dr. Ashish Jha, President Joe Biden’s coronavirus response coordinator, shared the timeline during a White House briefing. He cautioned that the preparations are contingent on Food and Drug Administration authorization of doses for children 6 months through 4 years old, and a recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. No doses will be shipped until the FDA and the CDC sign off.
“I want to be very clear that I am not here to prejudge the outcome of the process,” Jha said. “But the administration is hard at work planning all sorts of scenarios based on whatever the outcome is.”
He said the administration has been working closely with local health departments, pediatricians and family doctors, and has asked states to distribute the initial tranche of doses to sites such as children’s hospitals, which serve the most vulnerable young patients, and sites in neighborhoods hardest hit by the pandemic.
The nation’s 18 million children younger than 5 are the last group of Americans for whom COVID-19 vaccines are not available, and the frustration among many parents has been palpable. Now, for the first time, they have a date, albeit a tentative one.
But not all parents are eager. Only 29 percent of children ages 5-11 are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, even though that age group has been eligible since November. A recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that 18 percent of parents with children younger than 5 said they would get them vaccinated right away; 38 percent put themselves in the “wait and see” category and 27 percent said they would “definitely not” get their children vaccinated.
Jha said that while it will take some time for the vaccines to become broadly available, the White House expects that “within weeks” of an authorization, “every parent who wants their child to get vaccinated will be able to get an appointment.”
To pediatricians and parents waiting for the shots, the announcement was welcome, though not entirely unexpected.
“It’s almost summer, people want to go on vacation, they want to feel like their kids are safe,” said Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, a Stanford University professor who chairs the American Academy of Pediatrics’ committee on infectious diseases.
Pressure has also been mounting on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers have demanded to know why there has been such a long wait.
Parents “are frustrated, they are confused, and I am, too,” Sen. Patty Murray, DWash., said at an FDA oversight hearing in April.
Late last month, the FDA laid out its tentative timetable for considering applications from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech to authorize doses of their COVID-19 vaccines for young children; a decision on authorization could come soon after an outside panel of experts advising the FDA meets to discuss it on June 15.
If the FDA grants emergency authorization to one or both vaccines, a CDC expert panel will convene soon after to make recommendations about how they should be used. If the process is completed by June 17, Jha said, doses could ship over the three-day weekend that includes the Juneteenth federal holiday, and be available June 21.