Statement By Protect Their Future On Delays on Children Vaccines
April 21, 2022-- With little transparency or explanation, Biden administration officials and leaders of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have repeatedly delayed access to life-saving vaccines for children under 5 – at a staggering cost to our children’s lives and health. Communicating only through secret leaks to the press, the FDA has hidden behind the cloak of "following the science" while expanding and delaying pediatric clinical trials as millions of young children become infected and reinfected.
Today, Politico reported that “regulators are leaning toward postponing any action until the early summer, arguing that it would be simpler and less confusing to simultaneously authorize and promote two vaccines to the public.” Adult vaccines were successfully approved and rolled out asynchronously to the same adults that will now be making decisions on behalf of their children. The FDA can authorize two different vaccines for our kids a few weeks apart simply by following the process used for adults.
When asked on CNN “If Moderna is ready to apply for that EUA and we can have it in May, why can't we have it in May?” Dr. Anthony Fauci replied, “I don’t have an answer to that. I’m sorry.” We demand that FDA Commissioner Robert Califf and President Biden provide a complete answer to this question on the record.
Parents, pediatricians, and caregivers eager for authorization are not confused about the benefits of vaccination for their children. Every day of inaction leads to more preventable suffering, borne disproportionately by the most medically, socially, and economically vulnerable among us. It is immoral and unscientific for our leaders to suggest that they will again delay approval -- not because of concerns about safety or efficacy – but because they want to delay review of Moderna’s data until Pfizer can catch up. This creates the appearance of favoritism and undermines the credibility of a vital institution while costing children’s lives and health. Delay is measured in preventable pediatric and caregiver deaths, hospitalizations, ER visits, MIS-C cases, and disrupted lives.
While administration officials and leaders of our federal health agencies have long emphasized to adults that "the best vaccine is the one you can get," they are requesting inconsequential trial changes that serve only to delay. These vaccines prevent serious infection, hospitalization and death, but only if they are authorized and administered. Our leaders in the FDA and White House now have young children's lives in their hands. Their failure to act expeditiously is an affirmative policy choice to infect and reinfect every child born after mid-2017.
We have been told repeatedly to be patient through delay after delay. Today marks almost one and a half years since the first adults were vaccinated and six months since 5-11 year olds received their first doses and we were assured we were next.
While each agency claims to be helpless to move the process forward, our country's leaders must demonstrate the political will to make these vaccines available. Parents and families of the almost 20 million children under 5 will remember the betrayal of our leaders and their willful failure to protect them – or celebrate the leadership that broke through the stalemate to prioritize the future of an entire generation.
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Protect Their Future is a grassroots group of physicians, parents, and activists advocating on behalf of young children and patients to have access to COVID-19 vaccines as the pandemic rages on. The organization is calling on health leaders to PUT KIDS FIRST and allow parents and doctors the option to protect children with a safe and effective vaccine.
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