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Key Messages for Younger Pediatric COVID-19 Vaccination

Key Messages for Younger Pediatric COVID-19 Vaccination

On Saturday, June 18th, CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, M.D., M.P.H., endorsed the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ (ACIP) recommendation to expand COVID-19 vaccination to children younger than 5 years of age. This decision now universally recommends COVID-19 vaccination for everyone 6 months and older, paving the way for about 20 million children in this age group to get vaccinated and allowing providers to begin vaccinating with either the Moderna or the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as soon as possible.


KEY DATES

  • If you placed an order in Philavax before 6/8/22 at 5pm, your order will be arriving between the 21st and 24th.
  • If you placed an order in Philavax between 6/8/22 – 6/22/22 at 5pm, your order will most likely be arriving the week of the 27th (exact delivery TBD).
  • If you placed an order via Monday.com before 6/22/22 at 5pm, your order will be arriving 6/28/22.
  • ACIP will be meeting to discuss recommendations for the recently authorized Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine for ages 6-17 years on June 23rd.


KEY MESSAGES   

CDC recommends that everyone 6 months and older get vaccinated against COVID-19. 
  • Parents make decisions every day to protect their children, and now COVID-19 vaccines are available to protect all children 6 months and older.
  • Both the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID0-19 vaccines have been approved for children ages 6 months through 5 years.
  • The Moderna vaccine for children ages 6 months through 5 years will be a two-dose primary series.
  • The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children ages 6 months through 4 years will be a three-dose primary series.
Vaccinating everyone, including children 6 months and older, provides the best defense against serious outcomes related to COVID-19. Both COVID-19 vaccines for children are safe and protect against severe illness from COVID-19.
  • Thousands of children were part of robust clinical trials to evaluate the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines and how well they worked.
  • Parents and caregivers are encouraged to register their children for v-safe to share how their child is feeling after vaccination. V-safe uses confidential text messaging and web surveys to provide personalized health check-ins following COVID-19 vaccination.
  • To help enroll more children in v-safe, providers are encouraged to give families information on v-safe (and why it is important and beneficial) at the time of vaccination.
  • Children and teens can get a COVID-19 vaccine and other routinely recommended vaccines, including a flu vaccine, at the same visit.
Parents and caregivers should get their child vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine that is available to them.  
  • To find COVID-19 vaccines for children, parents and caregivers can talk to a doctor, nurse, pharmacist, visit vaccines.gov.
    • VaccineFinder should be updated to search for under five vaccines on WED/THUR.
After getting a COVID-19 vaccine, children may have some side effects similar to those seen with other routine childhood vaccines.
  • Reported side effects tend to be mild and temporary. Some children have no side effects.​
  • Serious health events, like myocarditis, after COVID-19 vaccination in children are rare. When they are reported, side effects occur most frequently within a few days after vaccination.
The benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the known and potential risks.  

RESOURCES

Information for jurisdictions, clinicians, vaccine providers, and community partners to plan and implement vaccination for children who are eligible: 
Information for parents and caregivers: 
Links to EUAs and Dear HCP Letters: