COVID vaccinations for young children available this week
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COVID-19 vaccinations for children under 5 are expected to be available this week for the first time at local health care providers.
Why it matters: The shots' availability is a big moment for parents who have anxiously been waiting to vaccinate their young children.
Driving the news: The CDC signed off on allowing Moderna and Pfizer shots for children as young as 6 months old Saturday.
The impact: The state health department preordered 27,500 Moderna vaccine doses and 38,100 for Pfizer.
- The CDC was expected to begin shipping them yesterday, but it may take a few days for providers to train staff and set up appointments, according to the department.
State of play: Shortages are not expected in part because misinformation and vaccine hesitancy remain prevalent, Bishara Freij, chief of Pediatric Infectious Disease at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, tells Axios.
- Less than 30% of kids under 5 will get vaccinated nationally, Freij predicts.
- "I hope I'm mistaken, but just judging from what exists on the ground, I'm seeing people are more hesitant with younger kids," he says.
Zoom in: The Detroit Health Department is waiting for a go-ahead from the state and a shipment of these vaccines — both of which it hopes will happen in the "next day or so," a spokesperson told Axios yesterday.
Yes, but: Specifics on Detroit's strategy for this new round have not yet been publicly released. The city has a low vaccination rate of 42.3%, compared with 60.8% statewide.
- The rate for kids 5-11 years old, who became eligible in November, is 10.3%, compared with a statewide figure of 25%.
Context: Parents are less likely to be vaccinated than those without children, and if parents aren't vaccinated, they're unlikely to vaccinate their young kids, a recent University of Michigan survey of Detroiters found.
- But parents are more likely to have been vaccinated recently than when the initial adult vaccines first became public in 2021 — a fact that the report says "suggests efforts to encourage parents to vaccinate may be gaining ground."