The Biden administration on Thursday shared details of its COVID-19 vaccination plan for children under 5, who remain the last age group in the nation to gain access to the life-saving shots.
The White House has made 10 million COVID vaccine doses available for "states, Tribes, territories, community health centers, federal pharmacy partners, and others" to preorder, and said it is partnering with these groups to ship and distribute the shots nationwide. The announcement arrives ahead of next week's meeting of Food and Drug Administration vaccine advisers, who will discuss emergency use authorization of the Moderna and Pfizer COVID vaccines for children ages 6 months to 5 years and 6 months to 4 years, respectively. If the panel recommends authorization and the FDA agrees, the final decision regarding both shots will be left up to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
To that end, the administration says it is preparing for "all scenarios, including for the first vaccinations to start as early as the week of June 20th."
A senior administration official has said that, in addition to vaccinations at doctors' offices, jab sites will be set up at convenient locations like "pharmacies, schools, children's hospitals, diaper banks, community health centers, clinics, museums, libraries and organizations serving minority communities across the country," CNN summarizes.