First Lady Jill Biden Promotes COVID Vaccine for Kids as U.S. Joins Countries Vaccinating Children Under Age 12
First lady Jill Biden on Monday promoted COVID-19 vaccines for children in Virginia as part of the Biden administration's effort to end the coronavirus pandemic.
During her visit at Franklin Sherman Elementary School in McLean that runs a pediatric COVID-19 vaccination clinic, Biden urged parents and guardians to vaccinate their 5- to 11-year-old kids now that the shots are available to them, Yahoo! News reported.
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Jill Biden Urges Parents to Vaccinate Children
Jill Biden said vaccines were the best way to protect children against COVID-19. Apart from being free, she noted that the vaccine was safe since it's "been thoroughly reviewed and rigorously tested."
The venue, where the first lady promoted the COVID-19 vaccines, was historic as the Franklin Sherman Elementary School was the first education facility in the U.S. to host a polio vaccine clinic in April 1954, The Daily Mail reported.
"Please make the decision to protect your children with the same vaccine that has already saved millions of lives, because nothing is more important than our children's health," Jill Biden said, as she carefully labeled the decision as a "choice."
The first lady then noted that worrying goes hand in hand with parenthood.
"It's just what we do as parents... So I can't promise you that the dangers of this world will become any less frightening - I mean, just wait until your kids start driving. But with this vaccine, we can take away at least one of your worries," Biden said.
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy also spoke at the event and promoted the COVID-19 vaccine for children.
"This vaccine will help protect children and communities from COVID-19... Because we know two very important things about the vaccine. No. 1, it works. And No. 2, it has a strong safety profile," Murthy said.
The surgeon general then warned the public about the misinformation surrounding the vaccines.
"We're asking parents [to] be careful about where they get their information from," Murthy noted.
At least 260 children were given a dose of Pfizer vaccine at the site on Monday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has authorized Pfizer's vaccine for kids ages 5 to 11 last week. It will allow around 28 million children in the U.S. to receive a COVID-19 vaccine for the first time.
Despite its approval for children, some polls revealed that roughly a third of parents in the U.S. intend to leave their elementary-school-age children unvaccinated.
CDC data showed that more than 65,000 children under the age of 17 were hospitalized due to coronavirus nationwide, and at least 897 have died.
U.S. Joins Countries Vaccinating Kids Under 12
The U.S. is not the only country that vaccinates kids against COVID-19 under the age of 12. Many children aged six and older from El Salvador, Chile, Ecuador, and Indonesia have already received their first dose of the COVID vaccine. However, it was unclear when these countries began inoculating the said demographics.
Argentina, Bahrain, China, and the United Arab Emirates have authorized COVID vaccinations for children under the age of three. In Cuba, children as young as age two can receive the jabs.
Meanwhile, Costa Rica requires the COVID vaccine among people under the age of 18. The country's Health Ministry said Friday they would include it in the mandatory vaccines against polio, chickenpox, and HPV or human papillomavirus, The Washington Post reported.
The Health Ministry noted that the vaccine doses for children under the age of 12 would be acquired next year, and guidance for the inoculation of children aged 5 to 11 will come as the doses for the demographics become available.
This article is owned by Latin Post.
Written by: Joshua Summers
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