Fla. Gov. Ron DeSantis.Photo: Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty
“We are not going to have any programs where we’re trying to jab 6-month-old babies with mRNA,” DeSantis said during apress conferenceMonday. “We still have not ordered it. We’re not going to order it.”
Florida is the only state that did not pre-order COVID vaccines for children as young as six months old prior to the Food and Drug Administration’s authorization last week. DeSantis claimed there’s a lack of evidence to support the need for healthy children to receive vaccines.
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Kids getting the COVID-19 vaccine.Getty
Last Wednesday, a FDA panel voted unanimously to authorize use of the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines for children under 5 to six months old. Days later, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also signed off on COVID vaccines for the age group.
On Friday, DeSantis agreed to allow state healthcare providers and pediatricians to order their own supply of vaccines, according to the White House.
Pfizer and BioNTech announcedin December that a two-dose regimen did not elicit enough of an immune response in some children under 5, prompting their study of a third dose.
At the time, the companies reported that the two-dose vaccine was effective in children under age 2, similar to those in the 16-24 age bracket. However, children ages 2 through 5 generally did not have the same response.
In April, vaccine advocates encouraged the administration to act sooner rather than later. Colorado Gov. Jared Poliswrote a lettercalling on the Biden administration to step up efforts to get authorization for vaccines for the country’s youngest population.
“Hospitalization rates for children under 5 were the highest ever during the omicron surge. While children younger than 5 are less vulnerable to SARS-CoV-2 than adults, they can still experience severe and lasting outcomes,” Polis said in the letter. “Delays and lack of urgency from the FDA and vaccine developers in authorizing a vaccine for children under 5 are concerning.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for emergency use in children ages 12 to 15 backin May 2021. The vaccine received the same approval for children ages 5 to 11 six months laterin November.
source: people.com
