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Eighteen months after a New York City nurse received the first coronavirus vaccination in the United States, immunizations were available Tuesday for millions of children ages 6 months to 5 years, the last group of Americans to be vaccinated. He offered them this protection.
Pediatricians, drugstores, hospitals, and community vaccination centers began administering the first doses of two vaccines to children: the Pfizer-BioNTech product to children between 6 months and 4 years of age; and the Modern vaccine for children from 6 months to 5 years.
Some parents rushed to get vaccinated on Tuesday morning. In Washington, DC, Chinmay Hegde’s 14-month-old daughter, Ada, was the first child to receive a vaccine Tuesday morning at National Children’s Hospital. He got wet when the needle came in, but it wasn’t as bad as his routine shots.
“The last time we came here he ended up getting five shots the same day,” Hegde said. “I think the fact that there was only one, she said, ‘Oh, great, great.'”
At a city covid center on U Street, a row of parents and strollers meandered around the corner as Asia Perazich waited with her 3-year-old son Mica and one-year-old daughter Zia.
“I wish it had happened sooner,” Perazich said as Micah scribbled on a watercolor book. “It will be nice to be able to take them to a restaurant and not worry.”
In Houston, Jim Versalovic, chief pathologist at Texas Children’s Hospital, said: “We started vaccinating the first children at 6 in the morning. Now we have gunshot wounds to the arms. is to get this vaccine to thousands of children in the greater Houston and Texas area.
“Children manage it as well or better than adults,” he added.
President Biden spoke at the White House on Tuesday afternoon, calling the development affecting up to 19 million children across the country “a very historic milestone, a monumental step forward.” He said the United States is now the first nation to offer a vaccine to six-month-olds and urged parents to vaccinate their children. Biden previously visited a city-run coronavirus center where vaccines were offered to children.
Nancy Wyss of Chicago said she has scheduled an appointment to vaccinate her 3-year-old daughter next week. Wyss said she has been waiting for this moment for her daughter’s “health and protection” so the family can feel more secure when they visit the girl’s grandparents.
Wyss said the vaccine will also help “my own sanity.” Wyss said her daughter’s daycare is currently closed if a child or teacher has coronavirus; once vaccinated the children will keep the center open if there is any case. The vaccine will also alleviate Wyss’ worries about flying.
“We are going on a trip in early August, so it makes us more comfortable to fly with her and see her grandparents. It’s exciting. We have been waiting for a long time, “he said.
For the parents who have been there Eager to vaccinate their children, Tuesday was the end of a long and difficult period in which infants, toddlers and preschoolers did not have access to vaccines that have been shown to be very effective in preventing death. and the hospitalization of the rest of the population.
But a survey by Kaiser Family Foundation’s Covid-19 vaccine monitor published in May found that they were a clear minority. Eighteen percent of parents with children under the age of 5 said they were eager to vaccinate young people immediately. More than a third of parents, 38 percent, said they planned to see how the vaccine works in other children, and 27 percent said they would “definitely not” get their children vaccinated. Eleven percent said they would do it if necessary.
The survey was conducted before the Food and Drug Administration found safe and effective vaccines for younger children and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention gave them the green light on Saturday.
In some places, there was a first rush for appointments. “It’s only been about 24 hours since the vaccine was delivered, and our call center has been flooded with phone calls to get that vaccine,” said Mary Zimmerman, a nurse and immunization specialist at Spectrum Health. Michigan.
In New York, there was a one-day delay as vaccine sites awaited final approval from the state Department of Health. Matthew Harris, a pediatric emergency physician at Cohen Children’s Medical Center in Queens and medical director of the coronavirus vaccination program at Northwell Health, said vaccines for children under 5 in New York City are likely will begin on Wednesday.
Florida, which refused to apply for the vaccine until the administration of Governor Ron DeSantis (R) withdrew and allowed doctors to request it on Friday, is unlikely to see any vaccination until the end of this year. week, according to the state Department of Health. The state government, which does not recommend the vaccine for healthy children, was the only one in the country that did not request the vaccine.
Biden said on Tuesday that “elected officials should not get in the way and make it harder,” for parents who want to see their children vaccinated. “This is not the time for politics.”
Some 13.5 million children have tested positive for the virus, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, offering some protection against it. According to federal health data that analyzed blood tests, the figure is even higher: by the end of February it was shown that 3 out of 4 children across the country had been infected with coronavirus.
Monitoring of coronavirus cases
But health authorities say all children should be vaccinated, because it is the best way to provide children with lasting protection and reduce the chances of another infection and complications.
Children are less likely than other people in other age groups to become seriously ill with the virus, but they are not invulnerable. More than 1,000 have died, more than 40,000 have been hospitalized, and more than 8,500 have suffered from a disease called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C), which can cause inflammation of the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, eyes, and other organs. , According to the CDC.
Houston mother Brittany Kruger said Tuesday she will not vaccinate her children.
“My children have had covid, and the only reason we knew it was because we had it. So we tried them. They showed no symptoms, like most children we know, “he said.” I think my children, at their ages, have very little risk of covid side effects. In fact, I am more afraid of what the market would look like in the long run. “
But Amisha Vakil, who has 3-year-old twins Jiyan and Kian, one of whom is at high risk for a heart transplant, went to Texas Children’s at 6:30 a.m. to vaccinate the two children. .
“Vaccinating my two children today means a lot to us, especially giving Jiyan that shield, some armor,” he said.
“We’ve been in quarantine for almost two years,” he added. “We could not send them to nursery school or any other activity. Kian also stayed home because he could take something home with him.
Coronavirus vaccine follow-up
Nearly 67 percent of the U.S. population is vaccinated, a proportion that has barely increased in recent months despite the efforts of private and government health officials. The virus has killed more than 1 million Americans, the largest known total of any nation in the world.
At Seattle Children’s Hospital, the parents and their children stayed out of the vaccination room for 15 minutes. Some children had barely said the first words, and others restlessly threw themselves up and down the corridors. The hospital was ready; the Doppler, the mascot of the Seattle storm, came to give children a 7-foot distraction, red and yellow, hairy.
Erin Murphy, who was in the hospital with her 3-year-old son, said covid protections prevented her from attending her great-grandfather’s funeral and she stayed home with her father. Now, the boy has joined his family to get vaccinated, and he has documentary evidence to prove it.
“Everyone had a picture when he was vaccinated, and now he has his own,” Murphy said.
Edwin Lindo, who teaches critical race theory at the University of Washington School of Medicine, was one of the first in line to see his two young children being vaccinated as a step against the inequalities exposed by the pandemic. When her 8-month-old son became infected two months ago, he was “scared,” she said. Lindo took the baby to the hospital during his illness and took him back on Tuesday for a vaccination.
“This is our way of fighting and saying that we will not be the product of legacies of racism, we will not succumb to being a statistic. We will live another day to fight, so that we can really change the results of our community,” Lindo said.
Mark Del Beccaro, deputy director of immunavirus programs and coronavirus testing at the Seattle and King County Public Health Office, said he expects vaccines for young children to increase next month and then decrease as vaccines more families are hesitant about the effects on younger children. King County is one of the most vaccinated counties in the United States.
“It’s a good time to get vaccinated, so that people can be less worried about family reunions and, most importantly, be ready for the fall, when everyone comes back in,” Del Beccaro said.
Katie Shepherd in Washington, Mark Guarino in Chicago, Ken Hoffman in Houston, Barbara Liston in Orlando, Ian Morse in Seattle, and Jack Wright in New York contributed to this report.