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U.S. hospitals, clinics and pharmacies began vaccinating the country’s youngest children against COVID-19 on Tuesday, a milestone welcomed by parents who want to protect children from the worst effects of the virus.
Millions of vaccinations have been spread across the country, 18 months after the elderly became the first group eligible for immunization.
Children aged six months to four years are not at greater risk than adults.
But the level of infections alone has led to more than 45,000 hospitalizations and nearly 500 deaths in the 0-4 group in America since the start of the pandemic – results that vaccination could prevent in many cases.
“We’re super excited,” said Amisha Vakil, a mother of two three-year-old boys who wore matching Spider-Man T-shirts while taking pictures of Moderna at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.
One of the twins underwent three open heart surgeries in the first five months.
“It’s extremely risky, so you know, we live in a small bubble,” Vakil said. “Now he has a little armor, which helps a lot.”
The moment was also welcomed by President Joe Biden, whose administration gave the states 10 million injections of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines after they were allowed last week.
“The United States is now the first country in the world to offer safe and effective vaccines against COVID-19 for six-month-old children,” Biden said, calling it a “monumental step forward.”
Several other countries and territories, including Argentina, Bahrain, Chile, China, Cuba, Hong Kong and Venezuela, have previously offered COVID vaccines for young children, but they do not include mRNA vaccines, which are considered leading technology.
The European Medicines Agency is reviewing the Moderna vaccine for use in children under six and may follow the US decision.
Born in a pandemic
Many children brought in on Tuesday were born after the pandemic began and knew life was limited.
Anna Farrow, who came to the same hospital with her husband Luke, said she saw a new beginning for their son George, three years old, and Hope, 10 months old.
“It’s like the beginning of a normal childhood. And we are very excited about that, “she said.
On the other side of the country in Needham, Massachusetts, Ellen Dietrick, an administrator at Temple Beth Shalom, was preparing to welcome 300 children on the first day.
Daniel Greenaisen, the father of a three-year-old girl who received the vaccine, said: “This means that we are now only a few weeks away from being able to take her indoors and somehow get back to life, it’s quite exciting.”
Last week, a group of experts convened by the Food and Drug Administration reviewed data from clinical trials involving thousands of children conducted by Pfizer and Moderna and determined that both vaccines were safe and effective.
However, a survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation in May found that only one in five parents of children under the age of five are ready to be vaccinated immediately. A slightly higher share, 38 percent, said they would wait and see how well the vaccine worked for others.
Rita Said, a 29-year-old New Yorker, said she was concerned about the side effects and planned to wait several years before deciding whether to vaccinate her two-year-old son.
“Everyone for themselves, I think it should be optional, not mandatory,” she said, pushing her son in a stroller through Central Park.
Hal Moore, a 32-year-old teacher living in New York, said he was “definitely relieved” to be able to vaccinate his 10-month-old daughter, Lucy, but we’ll probably wait until the next normal meeting to get it. “
In a sign of continuing politicization over vaccines in America, Florida Gov. and potential Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis has refused to commission the federal government for vaccines for young children, leaving private practices and parents to fend for themselves.
“These are the people who have no risk of getting anything,” he told a news conference last week.
Pfizer, Moderna COVID photos work for children under 5, says the FDA
© 2022 AFP
Citation: The long wait is over as the United States vaccinates the youngest against COVID (2022, June 22), extracted on June 22, 2022 from
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