SEATTLE — Kids 5 to 11 years old are now getting child-size doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in Washington state.
This newly eligible group also happens to be the group seeing COVID-19 cases at the highest rates.
"Currently in King County, 5- to 17-year-olds have the highest incidence rates of all groups followed by the 18- to 49-year-old age group,” said Dr. Jeff Duchin, Seattle & King County's public health officer in a media briefing Thursday.
Health officials said King County is expected to get enough vaccine doses this week for about 48,000 children, which is just over a fourth of the 180,000 children ages 5 to 11 now eligible.
This means demand will most likely exceed supply until doses become more widely available.
"We know that as with any new eligibility group in the first couple of weeks supplies will be tight and will likely not be sufficient to meet demand and appointments will be hard to find initially,” explained Duchin.
Seattle Children's hospital is in the same boat with a limited supply of doses available.
"I think the important thing is that there will be vaccine, there will be plenty available," said Dr. Janet Englund, professor of pediatric infectious diseases with Seattle Children's. "It may not be this week, it may not be Monday or Tuesday next week, but I really think by the end of next week we're going to have a lot of opportunities."
Vaccine doses are available for kids at places like clinics, pharmacies and pediatrician offices.
UW Medicine told KING 5 it has several clinics open and operating for kids, but there are now approximately 13,000 people on the pediatric vaccine waitlist.
While health officials say the vaccine has been proven safe for children, many parents are still feeling hesitant to seek it out for their children.
"The vaccine in children is safe, it's immunogenic, and it's effective and that's great news. That's what we have to be consistently telling parents,” explained Englund.
Some health officials believe pediatric COVID-19 vaccines are a step toward returning to how things were before COVID-19.
"We're very happy to see this vaccine starting to arrive in our community," said Duchin. "Vaccines will provide health benefits not only to our children but to the environment in which they gather to families and to our community."
“Kids 5 to 12, they have grandparents, they have relatives, they have teachers and soccer coaches. They want to play in the band, and they want to go for scouts. They want to do a lot of things that have been very difficult to do,” said Englund.
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