How to prepare for the coming wave of COVID child vaccinations: OPINION

While there’s a high level of certainty that we will have a vaccine ready for some children later this May, how we will distribute the vaccine effectively and equitably to this group remains unclear. We are waiting on the Food and Drug Administration's review of the data submitted on the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for 12 to 15-year-olds. If and when the likely emergency use authorization is granted, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will meet the following day to make recommendations, which would apply to over 20 million kids. These kids would likely become eligible for the vaccine just as the school year is ending and summer plans await. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are also conducting trials of their mRNA vaccines in children ages 6 months through 11 years, and this data will likely be submitted in the fall of 2021. While we have incomplete data from only 24 states and New York City on pediatric hospitalizations due to COVID-19, we know that numbers are on the rise. The American Academy of Pediatrics reported that children represented 22.4% of new cases reported the week of April 22, up from one year ago when children comprised only 3% of total U.S. cases. We are also tracking kids who have experienced a serious complication of COVID-19, known as a multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children.