The health authorities of the United States endorsed this Saturday the vaccination against COVID-19 of children between 6 months and 5 years with the Pfizer and Moderna drugs, which will begin next week.
“For parents across the country, today is a day of relief and celebration,” the president said in a statement. Joe Bidenafter learning that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gave the green light to vaccination.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved on Friday the emergency use of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in children between 6 months and 5 years, but the approval of the CDC for this group was pending. of age could access vaccines in hospitals and pharmacies.
CDC accepted the recommendation of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) that children 6 months of age and older should be vaccinated against #COVID19.
More information (in English): https://t.co/nqZ4N34hmL pic.twitter.com/KL59F3U0kw
— CDC in Spanish (@CDCespanol) June 18, 2022
Biden pointed out that the United States is “the first country to protect the little ones against covid-19” and assured that his Administration has been planning this moment for several months.
“Today we take a monumental step forward in our nation to fight the virus,” said the president, who defended that vaccines are safe.
According to the CDC, the age group between 6 months and 5 years represents about 20 million children in the United States, who will be able to be vaccinated starting next week.
The director of the CDC, Rochelle Walensky, asked families through a video to take their children to be vaccinated.
“Many parents have been waiting for this day. Today we know with scientific data that the vaccines available in the US can be safely and effectively applied to children under 5 years of age,” Walensky assured.
So far, only 35% of children between the ages of 5 and 11, the last group to be authorized to receive the covid vaccine, have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
66.8% of Americans have completed their vaccination schedule, and 47.2% of them have received a booster dose.
The country, which accumulates the highest absolute number of infections and deaths from the pandemic, registered 96,000 new cases on Thursday, far from the peak of infections in January, when a million daily cases were recorded.
