Roll up sleeves: COVID-19 shot kids turn arrives

On Wednesday, at the pediatrician’s office in Decatur, Georgia, 10-year-old Mackenzie Olson took off her black leather jacket and rolled up her sleeves as her mother saw.

“I meet my friends, but that’s not the way I want them. Mackenzie wants to hug them after being shot at the Children’s Medical Group’s site and play games that they wouldn’t normally go to,” he said with his best friend and pillow. I threw it.

With the federal government promising enough vaccines to protect 28 million children in this age group, pediatrician offices and hospitals have begun vaccination of children, and schools, pharmacies and other locations will continue. Will follow suit.

Brian Gillio, 40, from Alexandria, Virginia, took his eight-year-old son, Carter, to the Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC for vaccination. Carter suffers from type 1 diabetes and is at risk of complications if infected.

“Carter was the last person to be vaccinated in our home and he was always the one we were most concerned about,” said Girio. “And today is like a corridor path for us to start living again, and we thank everyone involved in this process to help us feel the freedom we feel today. I couldn’t. “

Carter said he couldn’t wait to misplace the mask once it was completely vaccinated, so he could smell what he could have without the mask.

“I’m ready to throw it in the trash,” he said, but the CDC recommends masks in highly viral schools and indoor public spaces, even if they are fully vaccinated. increase.

10-year-old Cate Zeigler-Amon lined up in the first line of drive-through vaccination at Viral Solutions in Atlanta on Wednesday. The girl bounced around the car with excitement before a live computer shot during her morning presentation at elementary school.

After that, Kate said, “Very, very, very excited and very happy,” he said, “instead of having a freezing cold birthday party outside,” hugging his friends and having a birthday indoors next month. I am looking forward to celebrating.

Hartford Hospital, Connecticut, vaccinated seven young people on Tuesday night, minutes after the CDC director gave an OK, and three more at the beginning of Wednesday. Eric Aria, senior pharmacy director at Hartford Healthcare in Connecticut, said mainly the children of the staff were waiting for the CDC to be announced.

According to a video in the local media, one girl closed her eyes, the boy took a shot, and the other waiting children were applauded, barely crouching.

“It feels like another important step in the journey to be able to vaccinate as many people as possible and end the pandemic,” Arlia said.

The vaccine (one-third of the dose given to older children and adults and given with a child-sized needle) is given twice every three weeks, plus another two weeks for complete protection. Is required. This means that children vaccinated before the Thanksgiving Day will be eligible for Christmas.

Dr. Jennifer Shu, an office of the Pediatric Medical Group in Decatur, Georgia, first started vaccination on Wednesday. “This age group will be able to spend their vacations with friends and family more safely than since the pandemic began.”

Sarah Kerr’s 6- and 7-year-olds are patients with Shu and she wants to be vaccinated by the weekend. Her kindergarten son has a chromosomal abnormality, is specially educated, and is at risk of serious illness if infected, Kerr said.

“My son, who can’t wear a mask and is completely dependent on the people around him to protect him, will give him a line of defense,” Kerr said. “My daughter had to sit down on some social affairs because we had to be very careful for him. She has understood so much, It was hard for her. “

Thousands of pediatricians pre-ordered the dose, and Pfizer began shipping shortly after the Food and Drug Administration decided to allow emergency use on Friday. Pfizer says it plans to ship 19,000 times in the future, with a total of about 11 million shipments planned, with millions of shipments per week.

Authorities said they expected a smooth development, unlike the turmoil that plagued the nationwide turmoil for adults almost a year ago.

Jeff Seiens, Coronavirus Coordinator at the White House, was asked about his parents struggling to find a vaccine appointment. Vaccine.gov The website will be updated by Friday, allowing parents to search for nearby locations. He said the child vaccination campaign will be at full speed next week as Pfizer continues to ship millions more doses across the country.

He also said that more than 6,000 vaccination clinics were planned at schools across the country before winter vacation.

Walgreens plans to start vaccination of children on Saturday, saying parents can sign up online or by calling 1-800-Walgreens. CVS has also been accepting reservations online and over the phone at some pharmacies since Sunday.

Mass vaccination events were planned in many places within the next few days. While many pediatrician clinics expected strong demand, at least initially, nearly two-thirds of parents recently polled by the Kaiser Family Foundation asked if they would wait for a vaccine for their children. ..

Among them is Hannah House, the mother of Colorado with four children aged 2, 5, 7, and 8. She is vaccinated and wants to see how childhood vaccines work and are being studied in a larger childhood population.

“It hasn’t been studied in the long run. It’s just tense,” she said. “I will wait as long as I can.”

At the White House briefing on Wednesday, Warrensky authorities thoroughly reviewed all available data on the safety, efficacy, and immune response of the vaccine before recommending injections to children.

“The safety of our children is of utmost importance to me,” she said.

Surgeon General Bibek Mercy said his five-year-old son would be vaccinated. “Ultimately, we hope that all the children in our country will be safe from COVID and return to the lives they loved,” Mercy said.

Government officials said they could help build credibility with pediatricians and family doctors who rely on their parents for regular childhood vaccinations.

Dr. Ada Stewart, a black family doctor in Columbia, South Carolina, who works in a clinic for underserved patients, said young children are ready to start vaccination. She witnessed not only family illness and death, but also the sacrifices the virus brought to them, including school turmoil, poor grades, and mental tension.

School closures across the pandemic have disproportionately burdened children of color, widened academic gaps and worsened mental health, according to data presented to CDC advisers on Tuesday. Over 2,000 COVID-related school closures were seen in the first two months of the current school year.

However, Stewart believes that the demand for shots for children will vary.

“I’ve seen the full range because many of my patients are black, indigenous, and of color,” vaccinated children because of a history of distrust in the medical community. From parents who are eager to receive it to those who are more hesitant. “Stewart, a former president of the American Academy of Family Physiology, said.

Her message to both is the same: “Vaccines are effective, safe, effective and life-saving.”

A Pfizer study of 2,268 children found that the vaccine was nearly 91% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 infection. The FDA has concluded that 3,100 vaccinated children are safe.

Some skeptics question the need for children to be vaccinated because they are less likely to develop more severe COVID-19 than adults. But in the Delta variant, they become infected and are transmitted “as easily as adults,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said in a recent White House briefing.

Infected children also contribute to US casualties — nearly 46 million infections and more than 740,000 deaths.

Since the onset of the pandemic, at least 94 children between the ages of 5 and 11 have died of COVID-19, more than 8,300 have been hospitalized, and more than 5,000 have developed severe coronavirus-related inflammatory conditions. .. Blacks and Latino adolescents, and adolescents with chronic illnesses, have been hit hardest.

However, some health officials say the minority is imbalanced in the effects of the virus and should be overestimated in the COVID-19 vaccine study, but nearly 80% in Pfizer’s study. The child was white. A total of 6% of young blacks, 21% of Latino Americans, 6% of Asians, and less than 1% were Native Americans or natives of Alaska or Hawaii.

A black man, Kye’vontay Jordan, 7, suffers from diabetes, and a shot at Children’s National in Washington, DC reassured his father.

“Now I can sleep without worrying about him going to school,” said Brian Jordan. “Exposure to the coronavirus can really affect him and ruin him.”

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Patty Niberg from Denver. Angie Wang in Washington, DC. Contributions by Lauran Neergaard in Alexandria, Virginia, and Kate Brumback and Ron Harris in Atlanta.