Beloved stuffed animals in hand, they lined up at schools, pop-up clinics and children’s hospitals to do something that little kids generally hate to do: get a shot. COVID vaccinations for 5- to 11-year-olds began in earnest late last week, ramping up over the weekend and early this week.
By the end of the day on Wednesday, about 900,000 elementary school-age children will have gotten their first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, a White House official shared with NPR in advance of an announcement expected later in the day.
That represents about 3% of children ages 5 to 11. About 700,000 more have appointments scheduled in the days ahead at pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens.
“This does not include appointments being made, for example, at places like pediatricians’ offices, children hospitals and other sites,” the official said.
For the White House, this is an early and encouraging sign in the effort to vaccinate 5- to 11-year-olds, though it is impossible to tell from these initial numbers whether vaccinations will continue apace or hit a plateau of hesitancy as has happened with other age groups. Unlike previous expansions of vaccine availability, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for these younger children comes in a smaller dose with different packaging and smaller needles.
Vaccines for this age group couldn’t be packaged and shipped until the Food and Drug Administration gave emergency use authorization on Oct. 29, and it’s been a dash ever since.
To rapidly reach this new population, the official says Minnesota has set up 1,100 vaccination sites including one at the Mall of America at which 1,500 children can be vaccinated a day. Children’s hospitals have set up family-friendly events with pets, stuffed animals and adults in costume. New York City has more than 1,000 clinics planned in schools, with flexible hours.
Because it is a new program, comparisons are imperfect. A week after authorization of vaccines for 12- to 15-year-olds, a larger share of the eligible population had gotten their first dose than 5- to 11-year-olds so far. But adolescents were getting the same vaccine doses already widely available to adults in pharmacies and doctor’s offices all over the country, so there was no ramp-up time needed.