CentraCare Health: Ready to Give Vaccines To Kids Under Five After Approval

(KNSI) – St. Cloud area medical providers say it won’t be much longer before the first COVID-19 vaccines are available for kids under age five. Doctors say a vaccine for the youngest kids would add another layer of protection for them and the community. CentraCare COVID-19 incident commander Dr. George Morris says he expects the vaccines to be available this spring.

“It could be a month, it could be three months from now, that one is a little hard to predict. Once we know that it’s available, we have parents, we have pediatric providers, family medical providers that want to start doing these. And we will be ready to go as soon as possible.”

Researchers say all the vaccines that have been approved are safe based on the results of billions of doses given worldwide and the hundreds of millions given in the United States. Healthcare providers say a severe reaction from vaccination is rare.

Dr. Morris says that safety is a top priority, and that’s why researchers are taking their time.

“Kids are not just small adults and even young kids are not just small, medium sized kids, their immune systems are different. And that is why we should, and we are, taking our time to make sure that these vaccines are safe and effective and that we get the dosing right and also the interval.”

Dr. Morris says don’t be surprised if the waiting period for younger kids to get a second shot or a booster is different than an adult.

“this could be a case where maybe a young child, could get one shot now, and maybe it’s eight weeks, maybe it’s 12 weeks later, as opposed to the adult’s, which was more like three or four weeks.”

Last week, Pfizer and its partner BioNTech submitted their clinical trial data to the Food and Drug Administration for its review. It’s the first significant step in getting approval. There are several regulatory steps to come, but things could move fast. For example, the vaccine for 5- to 11-year-olds took just over four weeks to get approved after data was submitted last fall. If approved over the next few weeks, children as young as six months old could be able to get a COVID-19 vaccine in the United States.

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