WORTH A SHOT
ABI HAMMOND HARDLY FITS THE profile of an anti-vaxxer. The 30-something gym owner and strength and fitness coach considers herself “middle of the road politically,” lives in blue state Connecticut and has not only kept her two children, ages 7 and 11, up to date on their vaccinations but also makes sure they get flu shots every year.
But she won’t be first in line if, as expected, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approves COVID-19 vaccines for children under 12 early next month. She’s not sure if she’ll get in line at all.
“I’m really conflicted,” she says. “Is the level of illness that significant in children? I don’t know what the answer to that is. Initially you hear, ‘This is not serious for kids at all.’ And then it came time for the vaccine to be rolled out for kids. And it was like, ‘It’s actually very serious for kids, too.’ And I’m like, ‘Wait a second…’ The dialogue keeps changing. It’s confusing. And it’s become so political.”
On October 20, the White House, in anticipation of FDA approval, released details of its plans to have kids vaccinated through pediatricians’ offices, hospitals and other locations. Previously, the White House had told governors to start preparing to vaccinate children as young as 5 by early November. Administration officials said they had purchased 65 million pediatric doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, enough to vaccinate all 28 million children who would become eligible if the FDA approves the shots for children between the ages of 5 and 11 when it meets to consider the issue. An advisory committee is slated to offer a recommendation on October 26, and is widely expected to be all for it.
Parents? Not so much. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll, four in 10 parents with children between 5 and 11 plan to “wait a while to see how it is working” before vaccinating their kids. Their reservations run the gamut: Some worry the vaccine is not safe. Others believe the government has exaggerated the threat COVID-19 poses to kids. A small percentage are opposed to all vaccines. But many, like Hammond, who says she plans to “wait until the dialogue settles a bit,” are simply confused by all the noise.
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