On June 18th, the CDC approved the COVID-19 immunization for infants starting at the age of six months. In the US, this translates to an additional 20 million young ones under the age of five being eligible for immunizations for the first time. Many parents are keen to vaccinate their youngest due to an increase in COVID-19 instances. Dr. Grace Lee, a pediatric infectious diseases expert, provides answers to frequently asked questions concerning immunizations for infants under the age of 2 years.
After two days of public discussions, the CDC’s committee of independent vaccination experts came to a unanimous decision to recommend immunizations for infants through preschoolers. Saturday, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky gave the final go-ahead after approving the committee’s recommendation. Vaccinations for children under the age of five will begin in earnest on Tuesday, following the federal holiday commemorating Juneteenth, according to the White House. According to Dr. Ashish Jha, who is in charge of the Biden administration’s Covid-19 response, while initial appointment availability may be limited, every parent who wants their child to be vaccinated should be able to do so within the next several weeks.
You can find out more about where your child can get vaccines by contacting your local health department or your family doctor. You can also check out vaccines.gov. Even though Covid-19 is typically less severe in children than adults, the virus can be deadly for some youngsters. According to the CDC, Covid-19 is the seventh-highest cause of death among children ages 1 to 4. Since January 2020, about 200 children between the ages of six months and four years have died as a result of Covid.
According to CDC estimates, approximately 2 million children in this had been infected with Covid-19 during the pandemic. After authorities approved the final authorization stages on Saturday, providers across the country can begin immunizing the children aged 6 months to 5 years as early as this coming week. One of two COVID-19 vaccines produced by Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech received a unanimous decision on Saturday from an independent panel of advisors to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
