The United States on Tuesday launched its campaign to vaccinate children under the age of 5 against COVID-19, a move welcomed by some parents who want to protect their children from the virus’ worst effects.
• Also read: COVID-19: Seniors should get vaccinated by the end of summer
“We’re thrilled,” says Amisha Vakil, mother of two 3-year-old boys wearing matching Spider-Man t-shirts, to receive their Moderna vaccine at a children’s hospital in Houston, Texas.
One of the twins underwent three open-heart surgeries in the first five months.
“He’s at very high risk, so we’ve been living in a little bubble throughout the pandemic,” his mother says. “Now he has a little armor that helps him a lot.”
At the same hospital, Anna Farrow, who came with her husband Luke, is hoping “this will be some sort of beginning of a normal childhood” for their two children, George, 3, and Hope, 10 months.
“Historical Milestone”
“This is a historic step, a monumental step forward,” said US President Joe Biden as millions of vaccines rolled out across the country.
For “the first time in our fight against this pandemic, nearly every American has access to life-saving vaccines,” he added from the White House.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) last week gave the green light to Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for babies, children and adolescents as young as 6 months of age, while only the Pfizer vaccine had been approved for more than 5 years. The Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), the country’s main health authority, recommended them on Saturday.
A handful of other countries and territories including Argentina, Bahrain, Chile, China, Cuba, Hong Kong and Venezuela previously offered infant COVID vaccines but not mRNA vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna), which are considered the leading technology in the field .
The European Medicines Agency is currently reviewing the Moderna vaccine for use in children under the age of 6 and may follow the US decision.
500 dead
Children aged 6 months to 4 years are not nearly as likely to be infected as adults.
However, the level of contamination has resulted in more than 45,000 hospitalizations and nearly 500 deaths — out of more than a million combined — in the 0- to 4-year-old population in the United States since the pandemic began.
In Needham, Massachusetts, Beth Shalom Temple official Ellen Dietrick expected to welcome 300 children on the first day.
For Daniel Grieneisen, father of a 3-year-old girl, “This means that in a couple of weeks we can bring her indoors and sort of find our life, it’s quite exciting”.
According to a survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation in May, only one in five parents of children under five was interested in getting them vaccinated right away.
“I think I want to see more search results,” said Rita Saeed, 29, as she picks up her stroller in the aisles of Central Park, New York. She says she wants to wait a few more years before getting her two-year-old son vaccinated.
In a sign that politicization around vaccines in the United States continues, Florida Governor and potential rival of Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, Ron DeSantis, refused to give the federal government a mandate for vaccines for the youngest children . “who have no risk of catching anything,” he said.
“Now is not the time for politics,” Joe Biden replied, “it’s about allowing parents to do whatever it takes to keep kids safe.”