By: Ethan Tu
On Friday the 17th, Florida officials started allowing doctors and hospitals to order the new Covid vaccine for children under the age of five after facing intense public pressure.
Florida was the only state that did not preorder vaccines for younger children and missed the first two waves of vaccine preorders. As a result, parents won’t have the opportunity to vaccinate their younger children until the end of the month, weeks later than all other states.
The governor said that doctors could order the vaccine on Thursday, but until the state opened a state portal for orders on Friday, there was no way for them to do so. The major change on Friday was that the F.D.A approved the shot and orders from other states began coming in, which many think is the reason why Florida began allowing doctors to order the vaccine.
Although they allowed health care providers to order doses of the vaccine, the governor still does not recommend parents to get their children vaccinated. “I would say we are affirmatively against the Covid vaccine for young kids,” Ron Desantis, Florida’s governor, said. “These are the people who have zero risk of getting anything.”
Although there is a lower chance for young children to get Covid, 2,600 American children under the age of five have been hospitalized with the coronavirus, and 442 children have died from it. Not to mention the long-term effects it can have which may cause many unwanted symptoms.
The White House’s coronavirus response coordinator, Dr. Ashish K. Jha, along with many other doctors and officials, praised Florida for allowing doctors to start ordering doses saying, “this is an encouraging first step.” They also noted that the governor’s failure to preorder the vaccines earlier will come at a price to parents and families of Florida.
Unlike the other states, Florida will not help distribute doses of the shot to health care providers, making it much harder for pediatricians to have doses readily available for parents who wish to protect their children. This may negatively impact the health and safety of many children in Florida.
Despite the White House’s claims that the governor had “reversed course,” on Friday after the state started allowing pre-orders, Desantis said “the white house is lying about it,” and went on to say that the state has had the same policy since the spring, when they recommended against getting the vaccine for children five to eleven.
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