Children ages 5 to 11 can now get a Covid-19 vaccine in the US

Following news that children ages 5 to 11 can now get a Covid-19 vaccine in the United States, President Biden said today that Covid-19 vaccines will be available at "approximately 20,000 locations around the country." 

"These include places that parents know and trust: their local pharmacies, their pediatricians, family doctors and children's hospitals. Many of the vaccine sites will offer times on nights and weekends so parents can take their children to get vaccinated after work and after school," he said.

Biden added that the administration has been working with governors, mayors and local school leaders to bring vaccines to schools. 

"As of today, more than 6,000 school clinics have already been planned in school districts around the country," he said.

He noted that the administration is planning to make vaccines available at "hundreds of community health centers, rural health clinics and thousands of pharmacies and schools in our hardest-hit communities."

In addition, Biden said that they will be sending out mobile health units "to reach where the people are." 

President Biden says parents should rest easy now that they can protect their kids "from this horrible virus" following the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention'sauthorization of the Covid-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.

"For parents all over this country, this is a day of relief and celebration," Biden said in remarks from the White House Wednesday afternoon. "After almost 18 months of anxious worrying every time the children, your child had a sniffle or started to cough, you can now protect them from this horrible virus because that would always worry, that was coming along."

Earlier Wednesday: The White House outlined how the Biden administration is ramping up the vaccination program for children.

"Following the FDA's authorization last Friday, teams immediately began packing vaccines specifically formulated for kids ages 5-11 into specialized containers and they've been working 24/7 to ship millions of doses to thousands of vaccination sites across the country," White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said.

President Biden is delivering remarks from the White House about the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's authorization of the Covid-19 vaccine for kids ages 5 to 11.

On Tuesday evening, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky signed off on the recommendation, clearing the way for immediate vaccination of the youngest age group yet in the United States. The recommendation expands to include about 28 million children across the country, according to the CDC.

The President said in a statement Tuesday night that the authorization marks "a turning point in our battle against Covid-19" and "a major step forward for our nation in our fight to defeat the virus."

Earlier Wednesday, the White House outlined how the Biden administration is ramping up the vaccination program for children.

"Following the FDA's authorization last Friday, teams immediately began packing vaccines specifically formulated for kids ages 5-11 into specialized containers and they've been working 24/7 to ship millions of doses to thousands of vaccination sites across the country," White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said.

Zients said that starting next week, the vaccination program for children will be fully up and running with about 20,000 "trusted and convenient locations" available for parents to get their kids vaccinated including pediatricians, family doctors, pharmacies, community health centers and children's hospitals. Some of those locations have already started scheduling vaccine appointments for children and others, including CVS and Walgreens, will open scheduling systems on Wednesday.

Families are getting an early gift this holiday season: the chance to protect their children between the ages of 5 and 11 against Covid-19 through vaccination.

There won't be time for younger children to be fully vaccinated by Thanksgiving or Hanukkah, but it's still possible to protect them for Christmas, Kwanzaa and end-of-year gatherings.

"Understandably, parents want to protect their children and may have otherwise decided not to see their family members or travel over the holidays," said CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and professor of health policy and management at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health. "But now that their younger children are able to be vaccinated, they will be making very different decisions, including about seeing family indoors."

Lise Niggemyer, a parent in the Seattle area, plans to have her 6-year-old daughter vaccinated before the holiday, not only to protect her child, but to prevent spread to her other family members.

"They have the vaccine and they'd much rather see the grandkids, but I would feel better knowing that I wasn't unknowingly bringing it in the door or that someone one of my family members had seen in the past couple of days hadn't transferred it over," Niggemyer said.

If you're hoping for your children to be fully vaccinated before holiday gatherings, aim for the following dates:

Nov. 19 for first dose

For the safest Christmas, the deadline for a child's first dose is Nov. 19.

People start to see significant benefits of the first dose two weeks after their first shot, research has suggested. Having one dose before Thanksgiving or Hanukkah is better than nothing, Chaves-Gnecco said, but it takes both to ensure the optimal level of protection.

"They need to be fully vaccinated," Wen said. "The partial protection of one vaccine isn't sufficient."

When scheduling the second dose, it is okay to be off by a couple of days if the three-week mark falls on a time when pharmacies and offices are closed for holidays.

Dec. 10 for second dose

In order to be fully protected by Christmas Eve, which is Dec. 24, children will need to get their second dose of the vaccine two weeks before – making Dec. 10 the effective deadline for that holiday.

If the holidays fall 10 or even seven days after the second dose, that may still provide enough protection, Wen said, but two weeks is the best bet.

With 8,300 children ages 5 to 11 having been hospitalized with Covid-19, a third of them needing intensive care and at least 94 deaths from the virus in this age group, there’s every reason to get children this age vaccinated, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine for kids 5 to 11 late Tuesday and vaccinations have started. 

“I’ve shown you disease burden, incidence, transmission and the efficacy of the vaccine — every reason in the world to get our children vaccinated,” Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert, told a White House Covid-19 briefing. “Long Covid — which occurs in children, maybe to a lesser extent maybe 4-6% — nonetheless, long Covid does occur in children."

“Children and adults are equally vulnerable to coronavirus infection,” he added. “ We should not underestimate the incidence in children.”

Plus, he said, children under the age of 12 can transmit the infection to others and help spread the virus. Vaccinating them will help reduce the spread of the virus to everyone, Fauci said.

Vaccinating young children is important because children do need to be protected from Covid-19, US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said Wednesday.

“What we want to convey to parents is that this vaccine will help protect our kids from Covid. It's true that overall kids do much better than older adults with Covid but Covid is far from harmless in children,” Murthy said in a White House Covid-19 Response Team briefing.

“During the pandemic, we've lost hundreds of children to Covid-19 including nearly 100 children ages 5 to 11. Thousands have been hospitalized, and thousands have developed a serious Covid-19 related inflammatory condition that affects multiple organ systems, including the heart,” Murthy added.

Some context: Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children or MIS-C has been diagnosed in more than 2,300 children ages 5-11, officials told the briefing.

“On top of this, many children have suffered with long Covid or symptoms like shortness of breath, fatigue and brain fog stretched out for weeks or even months. There also the effects of Covid-19 on our kids mental health and their social and emotional well-being,” Murthy said.

US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said Wednesday he will be vaccinating his 5-year-old son against Covid-19.

“On a personal note, I just want to say that my wife and I will be taking our 5-year-old son to get vaccinated, and we will be so grateful that we can more confidently send him out into the world, knowing that he has strong protection against Covid-19,” Murthy said in a White House Covid-19 Response Team Briefing.

“Ultimately, we want every child in our country to be safe from Covid and to be able to get back to the lives they love: sleepovers and birthday parties, school plays and soccer games, visits with friends and grandparents and so much more. And that's why we must do everything we can to support parents as they consider vaccinating their children,” Murthy said. 

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Pfizer’s child-sized dose of Covid-19 vaccine for 5-to-11-year-olds Tuesday after review by the US Food and Drug Administration and the CDC’s own independent advisers.

 

Children who have had Covid-19 should still be vaccinated, and need both doses of vaccine, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Wednesday.

Studies show it’s safe for them to get the shots and will boost their protection, Walensky told a White House Covid-19 briefing. The CDC has recommended that children ages 5 to 11 get Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine and some have begun getting child-sized doses of the shots.

“We absolutely recommend that children who have previously had Covid also get vaccinated. That is definitely a recommendation. We have data from the trials – in in fact several, about 10% of people in the clinical trials for the kids – had previous infection and we have seen that that bolsters their protection and it is safe to do. So we absolutely recommend two doses of vaccines for these children,” Walensky said.

“We do know that after nearly all infectious diseases, you have some protection from getting that infection again, but we don't really know how long that lasts or how robust it is," she added.

Walensky also said there is not much concern about the risk of a rare heart inflammatory condition called myocarditis in the younger children, even though it’s a known risk for young men and adolescents who get Pfizer’s or Moderna’s shot.

“We carefully looked at this issue of myocarditis for 5- to 11-year-olds because of exactly the question and that is among the reasons that the dose was changed to a lower dose – 1/3 of the dose,” Walensky said.

White House Covid-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients outlined how the Biden administration is ramping up the vaccination program for children after the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director endorsed a recommendation to vaccinate children ages 5-11 against Covid-19, something he called “a landmark moment in our vaccination campaign.”

“Following the FDA’s authorization last Friday, teams immediately began packing vaccines specifically formulated for kids ages 5-11 into specialized containers and they've been working 24/7 to ship millions of doses to thousands of vaccination sites across the country,” Zients said during a briefing from the Covid-19 response team on Wednesday.

“This is an exciting and long awaited moment for parents and for our vaccination program,” he continued.

Zients said that starting the week of Nov. 8, the vaccination program for children will be fully up and running with about 20,000 “trusted and convenient locations” available for parents to get their kids vaccinated including pediatricians, family doctors, pharmacies, community health centers and children's hospitals.

Some of those locations have already started scheduling vaccine appointments for children and others, including CVS and Walgreens, will open scheduling systems today.

Zients said that by the end of the week, parents and guardians can go to vaccines.gov to search for locations near them offering vaccinations for kids ages 5-11.

He also highlighted steps state and local health departments are taking to meet children and parents where they are in order to vaccinate children as soon as possible. 

“State and local health departments are planning to launch thousands of community based clinics, including at youth sporting events, fairs, zoos, and community centers. And across the country, schools will partner with vaccine providers to host vaccination clinics, with more than 6000 clinics at schools being planned before the winter holiday break,” he said.

The administration will also be meeting later Wednesday with governors offices, state and local health departments, community health centers and pharmacies as they stand up their vaccination operations.

Zients also highlighted the latest vaccination numbers, saying more than 222 million Americans have had at least their first shot and 70% of adults are now fully vaccinated. He also said that today the country recorded over 1.3 million shots in arms, which is up almost 20% from last Wednesday's report.