WA expands vaccine eligibility to 5-11 year olds. Here’s how to find a dose
Children ages 5-11 can get a COVID-19 vaccine in Washington state following an endorsement from the state Department of Health, but supply may be limited.
The DOH expanded vaccine eligibility for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 to children as young as 5 years-old on Wednesday. The move comes after federal agencies and a workgroup of Western States reviewed data indicating the vaccine to be more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 in young children.
Washington’s Secretary of Health Umair A. Shah said in a news release this will allow nearly 680,000 children ages 5-11 in Washington state to be safely protected from the virus.
“As a father and as a physician, I have been eagerly awaiting the day I can get my children vaccinated,” Shah said. “Vaccinating this younger age group will help protect them, keep students in the classroom, and bring us one step closer to ending this pandemic.”
Only the Pfizer vaccine has been approved, meaning Moderna and Johnson and Johnson brands are still off limits to children. The Pfizer vaccine is administered in a two-dose series three weeks apart, however the pediatric version is a smaller dose of 10 micrograms rather than 30 micrograms, per the release.
Parents and guardians can schedule appointments for their children by contacting their healthcare provider, pediatrician, local pharmacy or a nearby clinic. However, the state warns doses may be limited.
The state initially received a pediatric vaccine supply of about 315,000 doses, according to the release. This means families may have to call or visit more than one provider to secure a dose over the next couple of weeks.
As supply increases, the state says it expects there to be enough vaccine for all children.
For its part, Thurston County Public Health and Social Services indicated it will not give any Pfizer doses to kids under the age of 12 this week.
However, as of Wednesday, PHSS has scheduled a tentative clinic on Sunday at the Thurston County Fairgrounds in Lacey for children 5-11 years old. Appointments for this clinic prematurely opened earlier this week, prompting PHSS to cancel all pre-registrations for the event.
“We will re-open the clinic for registration later this week once the CDC and DOH authorize this additional age group. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused,” PHSS posted on their vaccine information website.
PHSS indicated Health Officer Dimyana Abdelmalek must update the county’s standing orders to allow PHSS to administer doses.
About 3,100 children were involved in the vaccine safety study and none had serious side effects, according to the release.
The side effects that were reported included a sore arm, fatigue, headache, chills, fever and nausea, per the release. The DOH called those side effects “mild to moderate” and most went away in a day or two.
In the release, Chief Science Officer Tao Sheng Kwan-Gett called news of expanded eligibility “incredible.”
“As a pediatrician, I am thrilled younger children are now eligible to get immunized against COVID-19,” Kwan-Gett said. “It is wonderful to think that families can take advantage of vaccination for both young and old to more safely gather during the upcoming holidays.”
Children ages 5-11 make up nearly 40% of all cases in those 18 or younger across the state, according to the release.
In Thurston County, those 11 or younger account for 10% of all cases since the pandemic started, according to a report from Thurston County Public Health and Social Services. However, that same age group accounted for 17% of all cases from the past week, per the report.
Compared to adults, children often experience more mild cases of COVID-19, the state release says. However, some children can still become very sick and may require hospitalization.
More than 650 children under the age of 18 have died due to COVID-19 across the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The DOH recommends people get vaccinated even if they have recovered from a previous COVID-19 infection, citing research from the CDC that showed vaccination offers higher protection than a previous infection.
Vaccine appointments can generally be found on the state’s vaccine locator website. However, DOH says it had not yet added an option for a Pfizer-BioNTech Pediatric vaccine as of Wednesday. The option should be added in the coming days, per DOH.
Anyone who needs help scheduling an appointment can call the state’s COVID-19 hotline at 1-833-829-4357 then press #. Language assistance is available through this number.
This story was originally published November 4, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "WA expands vaccine eligibility to 5-11 year olds. Here’s how to find a dose."
