Protect Their Future Applauds News that Vaccines May be Available for Children Under 5 by Next Month

January 31, 2022–Protect Their Future released a statement in response to the news that vaccines for children under 5 may be available by the end of February:

We welcome the news that Pfizer-BioNTech plans to move forward with submitting a request for emergency use authorization for a two-dose Covid vaccine regimen. Contingent on rapid approval from FDA and the CDC, parents can start protecting their children within the month. This is a monumental win for parents, families, physicians and frontline workers across the country who have been stuck in a pandemic while most of the US seems to have moved on and loosened safety protocols.

As we celebrate the possibility of vaccine accessibility in February, we continue to ask our leaders to cut the bureaucratic tape that has been creating barriers to vaccine access to children. This will be critical to ensure that our children don’t continue to be left behind as future medications and vaccines roll out to fight Covid.

COVID-19 is a serious issue for children, currently igniting record hospitalizations for kids under 5. Approximately 1,000 kids have already died from the virus in the US, about 300 of them under 5 years old, and thousands have been hospitalized for severe illness. Among these complications is the life-threatening multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), whose frequency we know from recent studies could be reduced with vaccination. 500 million doses of mRNA vaccines have been given in the U.S. and their safety has been arguably scrutinized more than any vaccine in history. We know that mRNA vaccines have a high safety profile in children, with over 8 million kids ages 5-11 already receiving their shots in the US. Earlier this month, hundreds of doctors called on the FDA to cut the bureaucratic tape and make vaccines accessible to children under 5.

About Protecting Their Future: 

We are a grassroots group of physicians, parents and activists advocating on behalf of our young children and patients to have access to COVID-19 vaccines as the pandemic rages on. As parents, we have waited patiently for our kids to be protected while the rest of the country seems to have put the pandemic behind them. Omicron is the most infectious of all variants to date and early reports are showing potential increased hospitalization in children under 5. With nearly 6,000 cases of MIS-C in children and 1,000 kids who have died of COVID-19 kids under 18, we need to do all we can as parents to protect our children. We currently have the data and science, but bureaucratic and procedural red tape is leaving young children unprotected. We need that to change. We need the FDA and regulatory agencies to PUT KIDS FIRST and allow parents the option to protect their children with a safe and effective vaccine.

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