Utah children under 5 may be able to get vaccinated for COVID-19 as early as Monday, a state health official said Wednesday, shortly after a panel of Food and Drug Administration vaccine advisers approved Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccinations for the last remaining age group.
First, the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention need to rubber-stamp the shot, which the Utah Department of Health expects will happen in the coming days — the FDA sometime this week, if not later Wednesday, and the CDC potentially on Friday, UDOH spokesperson Jenny Johnson said.
“We’ve been anticipating this coming,” Johnson said. “Once the CDC director has [approved] that, and the statements come out from CDC, that’s what gives the states their authorization to order vaccine, administer vaccine.”
UDOH’s immunization program has already notified area health care providers to place preliminary orders for child vaccines, should they be approved Friday. These providers typically request orders through UDOH, which then orders the vaccines from the federal government.
“Most likely, for this younger age group, parents are going to find the vaccines for the younger children at a doctor’s office,” Johnson said. “It’s most likely that you would need to call your pediatrician’s office to ask when they will have vaccine in. ... The earliest that vaccine could be at places is Monday.”
But with the observed Juneteenth holiday Monday, parents may need to wait. And not all providers may have these vaccines — either because they did not preliminarily order them, or because they want parents to specifically go to pediatricians, should they have any pointed questions about their child’s care.
“Pediatricians and family doctors and your child’s doctor are going to play probably a much larger role in vaccination than they have for other age groups,” Johnson said.
“People just need to be patient and just check in regularly with their preferred vaccine provider,” Johnson continued. “If it’s a doctor, if it’s a local health department or pharmacy — they can just call and ask when they anticipate having vaccine available for appointments.”
Pfizer’s vaccine consists of three doses and is for children age 6 months through 4 years; Moderna’s vaccine consists of two doses and is for children age 6 months through 5 years.
Individuals can also use vaccines.gov to find a provider that will administer the shot for a specific age group if the CDC gives final authorization on Friday.
“We just, again, encourage [parents] to talk to their child’s doctor if they have questions or concerns,” Johnson said. “And then just generally, a lot of kids are behind on their ‘regular vaccines’ — that’d be their normal childhood vaccinations.”
“So this is a great time to get caught up on all those in addition to COVID,” Johnson continued, “if that’s something that you and your doctor feel is best for your child.”
from The Salt Lake Tribune https://ift.tt/IMNfTtD
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