Covid-19 vaccine approval for children aged 5-11 might come in two weeks, November 4 unofficial date

Majority of the Americans are waiting for the emergency authorization approval of the Covid-19 vaccines in children aged 5-11 as multiple polls showed that parents will get their children vaccinated against the deadly virus.

The Covid-19 vaccine for little children has been a hot topic since the vaccine were initially rolled out in December 2020 and while some people still remain vaccine hesitant, majority of the vaccinated parents believe that vaccinating their children is safe and won’t harm them in any way.

We are finally getting closer to the date when the Pfizer vaccine is expected to be approved by the FDA for children aged 5-11 and now even DHEC announced they expect the vaccination to start on November 4.

According to the data provided by the federal government, with the approval of the Pfizer vaccine 28 million children more will become eligible for vaccination.

The process to authorize the Pfizer shot for children age 5 to 11 starts next Tuesday, when a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel will meet to determine if it will recommend the vaccine’s use.

DHEC is already preparing for the rollout as they expect approval on the next week’s meeting.

“While it certainly is an undertaking, it is a much smaller one than what we faced for the initial vaccine rollout for adults,” DHEC Public Health Director Dr. Brannon Traxler said.

According to Traxler, states will be eligible to make reservations for children vaccine doses starting next Wednesday and if everything goes as planned, they can start administrating the vaccines as soon as November 4.

Traxler said they expect to have doses available by then.

“Between the first and fifth of November, we anticipate in the state, we could receive up to 152,000 doses,” Traxler said.

Another proof that FDA is expected to approve the Pfizer vaccine in children aged 5-11 is the recently released guide for health departments and pediatricians on how they should prepare for the vaccination in the upcoming period.

As we already reported multiple times, the doses for children aged 5-11 will be lower compared to the doses for older kids and adults.

“The reason it’s packaged differently is to make certain that people are getting the right one, is to make it look different than the ‘big kid dose,’ so to say, so if one has an orange cap and one has a purple cap, it’s a lot harder to confuse those, for example,” Traxler said.

DHEC and other health officials encourage parents to talk with their child’s pediatrician to get the right information regarding the vaccine and the vaccination process. False information has been number one factor when it comes to vaccine hesitancy so far.

Federal government confirmed that they bought enough doses and shortage is not expected, but Traxler added that parents should be patient as lines are expected in the very first days of the vaccination process.