‘Strong’ start to vaccine campaign for kids
WASHINGTON » The campaign to vaccinate elementary school age children in the U.S. is off to a strong start, health officials said Wednesday, but experts say there are signs that it will be difficult to sustain the initial momentum.
About 900,000 kids ages 5 to 11 will have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in their first week of eligibility, the White House said, providing the first glimpse at the pace of the school-aged vaccination campaign.
“We’re off to a very strong start,” said White House
COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients, during a briefing with reporters.
Final clearance for the shots was granted by federal regulators Nov. 2, with the first doses to kids beginning in some locations the following day.
The estimated increase in vaccinations in elementary school-age children appears similar to a jump seen in May, when adolescents ages 12 to 15 became eligible for shots.
Now nearly 20,000 pharmacies, clinics and physicians’ offices are offering the doses to younger kids, and the Biden administration estimates that by the end of Wednesday more than 900,000 of the kid doses will have been given. On top of that, about 700,000 first-shot appointments are scheduled for the coming days.
About 28 million 5 to 11 year-olds are now eligible for the low-dose Pfizer vaccine. Kids who get their first of two shots by the end of next week will be fully vaccinated by Christmas.
The administration is encouraging schools to host vaccine clinics on site to make it even easier for kids to get shots. The White House is also asking schools to share information from “trusted messengers” like doctors and public health officials to combat misinformation around the vaccines.
An initial surge in demand
for vaccinations was expected from parents who have been waiting for
the chance to protect their younger kids, especially before the holidays.
In West Virginia’s Cabell County, high demand led local health officials to start setting up vaccination clinics in all the county’s public middle schools. A spokeswoman for the county health department said there were some lines for vaccines in the first few days after the doses were approved for kids ages 5 to 11, but that things have slowed since then.
Some experts say that nationally, demand could also begin to recede soon. They note polling data suggests only a fraction of parents have planned to get their kids shots immediately, and they suspect the trend will play out like it did earlier this year when kids ages 12 to 15 were first able to get shots.