White House prepping vaccine distribution plan for kids

The White House on Wednesday unveiled its plans to vaccinate children between the ages of 5 and 11 years old, pending authorization by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the coming weeks.

The Biden administration said it has purchased enough vaccines to give shots to all of the country’s 28 million children ages 5 to 11 years old, and have been working with state and local leaders to be ready to distribute the vaccines once they are authorized.

The distribution plan will rely on more than 25,000 pediatricians’ office, community health centers, schools and pharmacies to put parents and children at ease, rather than the mass vaccination sites used in the initial rollout for adults.

The administration said it is also launching a partnership with the Children’s Hospital Association to work with more than 100 children’s hospital systems across the country to set up vaccination sites in November and through the end of the calendar year.

“Parents know and trust children’s hospitals to be there for their children’s medical needs, and these vaccination efforts will be no different. Pediatricians, pediatric specialists, nurses and team members will administer the vaccine to kids in trusted, family-friendly settings that serve kids every day,” according to the fact sheet.

Timeline: The details come ahead of an Oct. 26 meeting of an FDA advisory panel to discuss authorization for pediatric vaccines. If the panel recommends authorization, an FDA ruling could come in the days after, which would then clear a path for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to make recommendations on a pediatric dose in early November.