By: Iris Shen
Due to the long-lasting pressure from medical professionals and the government, the state of Florida began to allow children’s hospitals, pediatricians, and other physicians to order COVID-19 vaccines for young children last week.
Florida is the only state that prohibited health care providers to preorder these vaccines ahead of June 14, the federal government’s deadline. Subsequently, during the first wave of vaccine shipments on Monday, no doses were sent to doctors’ offices and labs. Florida also missed the deadline for the second wave of preordered doses, which was scheduled to arrive about a week later.
Dr. Ashish K. Jha, the White House’s COVID-19 response coordinator, told reporters that “the state of Florida intentionally missed multiple deadlines to order vaccines to protect its youngest kids.”
On Thursday, June 16, state officials said that doctors could order vaccines as needed. But to do so, doctors required the use of a state portal that was not yet opened for those vaccine orders in Florida
Young children usually receive their vaccinations at their pediatrician’s office. The federal Covid vaccine program also known as the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program, and is a part of the federal government’s plan to expand access to Covid vaccines for the public.
“Unlike pharmacies in the federal Covid vaccine program, doctors cannot order doses on their own,” said Dr. Lisa Gwynn, president of the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, in an article written by The New York Times’s Patricia Mazzei. She added that “it seemed like some officials were suggesting that doctors order directly from the federal government before the state even opened its online portal.”
Governor Ron DeSantis’s administration insisted that it had not moved from its original position at all. It said it would only allow orders for children’s vaccines once the FDA authorized the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines for young children on Friday morning. “I would say we are affirmatively against the Covid vaccine for young kids,” Mr. DeSantis said. “These are the people who have zero risk of getting anything.”
A congressional subcommittee overseeing the COVID-19 response had sent Mr. DeSantis a letter urging him to reverse his position by Friday morning.
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