When the state of Georgia made COVID-19 vaccinations available to children as young as 12 on Tuesday, Atlanta residents Jenny and Jeffrey Brower rushed to schedule a meeting for his or her twin 13-year-old girls.
As Georgians, they were among the lucky ones. Providers in their state, alongside those in Delaware and Arkansas, were already offering Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine to adolescents aged 12 to fifteen - just each day after U.S. regulators authorized it for emergency use therein age bracket.
Young people in most U.S. states contacted by Reuters would need to wait for a minimum of until later within the week.
A spokeswoman for Georgia's public health agency said it chose to offer shots directly to avoid turning children away and risking them not returning for the primary jab of the two-shot regimen.
Delaware also started early to satisfy the demand for shots from children and their parents, a spokeswoman said.
"Tomorrow isn't in time. I would like my kids vaccinated today," said Jenny Brower. "It's been vetted up and down, and it's safe and that we need it."
More than a dozen states surveyed by Reuters - including Texas, Idaho, Arizona, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, and Minnesota - said they might await the go-ahead from an advisory committee of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) before they begin administering the vaccine to children under 16.
In Minnesota, providers are permitted to offer a vaccine as soon because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration clears it, but a spokesman said it'll await guidance from a CDC committee, which can likely include information on correct dosing and potential safety concerns.
The committee will meet on Wednesday and states could begin vaccinating children as soon as Wednesday and Thursday.
In California, a state with 2.1 million 12- to 15-year-olds, health officials told reporters they're going to start offering vaccine appointments on Thursday. They hope to repeat the recent success of expanding vaccines to 16- and 17-year-olds, with quite 30% of them accessing at least one jab in but a month.
'THRILLED'
Vaccination of a big number of adolescent Americans could allow U.S. schools and summer camps to relax masking and social-distancing measures and help hasten a return to something on the brink of normal.
Deborah Saxon, a mother of three in Washington, D.C., is scrambling to vaccinate any of her children who are eligible before they head on July 7 for a sleep-away camp in North Carolina.
"I'm thrilled,” said Saxon, 42, a lobbyist and parent of a 14-year-old boy, a woman who turns 12 in early July, and an 8-year-old girl.
In an attempt to urge her children vaccinated as soon as possible, Saxon pre-registered them last week for the vaccine at Children’s National Hospital.
It takes about five weeks from the time the primary shot is run for people to succeed in optimal protection with the two-dose Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
It has been available under an emergency use authorization to people as young as 16 within us. the businesses said they started seeking full approval for his or her vaccine in people 16 and older last week.
On Monday, U.S. President Joe Biden hailed the expanded FDA authorization as "a promising development in our fight against the virus."
Most children with COVID-19 only develop mild symptoms or no symptoms in the least. However, they're not without risk of becoming seriously ill, and that they can still spread the virus to vulnerable people. There are outbreaks traced to sporting events and other activities for youngsters within the 12- to fifteen-year-old age range.
Many health officials are concerned that vaccine hesitancy in some adults is going to be even more pronounced when it involves their children.
Parents may question the risks versus benefits, given the unknowns about the long-term effect of the vaccines on children's development and their likelihood of being spared severe illness.
Even so, Jenny Brower, the Atlanta mother, said all teenagers - alongside everyone else - should get the vaccine as soon as possible, apart from those with medical conditions that might make it unsafe.
MORE| One AZ COVID-19 vaccine dose gives 80% lower death risk
0 Comments