Starting at age 4, Ben and Sarah Carter have been waiting for months to vaccinate their son against COVID-19.
Now, federal approval is likely overnight for vaccines for children ages 6 months to 5, the latest age organization approved, and the Carters say they wouldn’t delay an injection for Malcolm, 4.
“We are going to register as temporarily as we can and seek an appointment as soon as possible,” Ben Carter said. Malcolm’s older brother, 6-year-old Will, is already vaccinated.
Sarah Carter, a registered nurse in complex practice, said she was involved in the long-term consequences of COVID-19 in children who did not receive the vaccine.
“It’s very frustrating to offer them protection,” he said.
COVID-19 vaccines for children under the age of five will only be available in Kentucky early next week, pending final federal approval.
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Local fitness officials say they are very pleased that children over 6 months to five years old are eligible for the vaccine that has been available to older children for months and to adults since late 2020.
“I’m not going to say this is the day that so many parents have been waiting for,” Dr. Brown said Thursday. Kristina Bryant, infectious disease specialist at Norton Children’s Hospital. “I think this is the day your kids get vaccinated against COVID-19. “
A panel of experts voted Wednesday to introduce two vaccines for young children, and final approval from the U. S. Food and Drug Administration is required. U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On Friday, the FDA approved the vaccines as part of an emergency use authorization. The CDC was scheduled to act saturday.
Family Health Centers, a network of network clinics in the Louisville area, have orders for vaccines and clinics will be able to supply them to youth pending federal approval, spokeswoman Melissa Mather said.
Dr. Beverly Gaines, a Louisville pediatrician, said she will offer the vaccines to children under the age of five on her Barrett Avenue as soon as they arrive. You have already signed up for the first shipment through the state Department of Public Health.
“I completely agree,” said Gaines, whose pediatric practice first approved a pilot assignment to offer COVID-19 vaccines when they were first legal for older children.
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And Gaines had already scheduled his first two patients.
Parents of 6-month-old twins told her on a recent workplace stopover that they plan to return next month when COVID-19 vaccines deserve to be available, she said.
“They’re coming back,” he said.
Approval of the Moderna vaccine for children 6 months to 6 years of age and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children 6 months to five years of age is pending. Ages differ by age of children in the two separate trials of pharmaceutical companies.
The vaccines are the same as those approved for adults and older children, but will be given in lower doses for younger children.
The Moderna vaccine requires two injections, 4 weeks apart.
The Pfizer vaccine requires two injections 3 weeks apart and a third dose 8 weeks later.
Both were found to be effective thanks to the organization of experts who reviewed them.
Vaccines will be available in doctors’ offices, clinics and other locations.
Norton HealthCare said it plans to offer the vaccines to children aged five months to 6 years at sites with 37 pediatric clinics in the community.
Family gyms will begin notifying their patients as soon as vaccines are available, Mather said.
While pharmacies may offer vaccines to older children, children under the age of 3 will have to make a stop at a clinic or doctor’s office, according to the state Department of Health.
Bryant, Norton’s pediatrician, said the side effects of the vaccine in the studies were “mild to moderate” in young children and come with fever, irritability, fatigue and pain at the injection site.
Bryant said he was aware that some parents remain concerned about the vaccine’s protection in young children and that it might not be mandatory because, in general, children don’t get as severely ill from COVID-19 as adults.
But some children become seriously ill, requiring hospitalization, or develop a rare but serious inflammatory disease known as multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C, which can be fatal.
In addition, COVID-19 may be for some children.
“The vaccine is the most productive way to protect your child from COVID,” Bryant said.
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