The United States started its Covid vaccination campaign for under-fives on Tuesday, June 21, a step welcomed by some parents, who want to protect their children from the worst consequences of the virus.
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"We're thrilled
," says Amisha Vakil, mother of two three-year-old boys, who wear matching Spiderman T-shirts to receive their Moderna vaccine at a children's hospital in Houston, Texas.
One of the twins underwent three open-heart surgeries in his first five months.
"He's very high risk, so you know, we've been living in a little bubble"
through the whole pandemic, his mom adds.
“Now he has a little armor which helps him a lot”
.
At the same hospital, Anna Farrow, who came with her husband Luke, hopes
"this is sort of the start of a normal childhood"
for her two children, George, 3, and Hope, 10 months.
"This is a historic step, a monumental step forward
," said US President Joe Biden as millions of vaccines were rolled out across the country.
For
"the first time in our fight against this pandemic, almost every American can have access to life-saving vaccines
," he added from the White House.
500 deaths among 0-4 year olds
The US Medicines Agency (FDA) last week gave the green light to Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for babies, children and adolescents from 6 months of age, while only the Pfizer vaccine was authorized until then for more than five years.
In the aftermath, the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), the country's main health agency, recommended them on Saturday.
A handful of other countries and territories, including Argentina, Bahrain, Chile, China, Cuba, Hong Kong and Venezuela, previously offered Covid shots for toddlers, but not mRNA vaccines ( Pfizer, Moderna), considered to be the leading technology in this field.
The European Medicines Agency is currently reviewing the Moderna vaccine for use in children under six and may follow the US decision.
Children between the ages of six months and four years are not at nearly as much risk as adults from infection.
But the scale of the contaminations has resulted in more than 45,000 hospitalizations and nearly 500 deaths – out of more than a million in total – in the 0-4 year old group in the United States since the start of the pandemic.
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In Needham, Mass., Temple Beth Shalom official Ellen Dietrick expected to welcome 300 children on the first day.
For Daniel Grieneisen, father of a three-year-old girl,
"this means that in a few weeks we will be able to take her to indoor places, and in a way find our lives, it's quite exciting"
.
According to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey in May, only one in five parents of children under five were eager to get them vaccinated immediately.
“I think I want to see more search results,”
said Rita Saeed, 29, hands on her stroller, in the alleys of Central Park in New York,
In a sign that the politicization persists in the United States around vaccines, the governor of Florida and possible rival of Donald Trump for the presidency of 2024, Ron DeSantis, refused to place an order with the federal government for vaccines for the youngest children,
"who have zero risk of catching anything"
, according to him.
"Now is not the time for politics
," Joe Biden replied,
"it's about allowing parents to do whatever they can to keep kids safe
. "