Last Friday, the FDA authorized the emergency use of the Pfizer vaccines for children ages 5-11. Then, Tuesday night, the CDC recommended the vaccine for children.
Unfortunately, that approval happened simultaneously with a bunch of closely-watched elections. Wednesday morning, most news sites did mention the vaccine’s approval, but those stories were buried underneath breathless election stories. I found them but I only found them because I actively looked for them.
So just so our U.S. readers don’t miss the news: if you have a child five years old or older, your child can now get vaccinated against Covid!
Tuesday night I made an appointment for my youngest to get his vaccine today. The next day, though, a friend told me that a local vaccination clinic (Instavaxx, for those of you in Chicago) would be taking walk-ins that afternoon starting at 2:00. When my wife got home from work, she picked our son up early and biked him to Instavaxx.[fn1]
An hour later, our son had his first shot and was home. As the youngest, he’s the last in our family to get his vaccine. And he was so excited to get it. (Also, the rest of us were so excited for him to get it.)
Polling suggests that about 1/3 of parents are eager to get their kids vaccinated. We clearly fall into that cohort.
It also suggests that about 1/3 want to wait to see how it’s going. If you’re in that cohort, here’s an anecdotal data point: my son has had no reaction to his shot. The rest of us had reactions ranging from very mild (tired for about a day) to mild-plus (flu-like symptoms for about a day).
But other than a slightly sore arm, my son was as energetic as ever yesterday and, so far, today. And now he’s begun the process of following the prophet, protecting himself from disease, and protecting his community.
It’s also worth noting that getting the vaccination for 5-11s is much easier than the first iteration of getting vaccinated. And while it was legally available this week, distribution is really supposed to kick in next week. So for those of you who have been waiting with bated breath to vaccinate your elementary school children, the wait is almost over! (For those of you with children younger than 5, I’ve got my fingers crossed on your behalf.)
[fn1] I was picking our neighbor’s kid up from school, so we could only take him once both of us were home.