The COVID-19 vaccine rollout for babies kicked off across the United States on Tuesday (June 21) after the CDC approved the mRNA injections for American children as young as 6 months old.
“This is a big day. We’ve been waiting a long time for children to have access to the vaccine. We now have every age group, 6 months and above, in the country which is now eligible to get protection from the Covid-19 vaccine. And I’ll tell you as a dad of a 4-year-old, this is a big deal for my family as well,” U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy told CNN’s Brianna Keilar on Tuesday morning.
However, Dr. Jeannette Lee of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, who serves on the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee, expressed “a lot of concern” about children not completing all three doses.
“I have a lot of concern that many of these kids will not get a third dose,” Lee warned. “My concern is that you have to get the three doses to really get what you need.”
Roughly 17 million kids under the age of 5 are now eligible for COVID-19 vaccines in the United States, the only country in the world that currently allows mRNA injections for babies.