COVID vaccines for young children could be coming to Michigan

LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - Children five and younger will soon be eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.

The Food and Drug Administration’s advisors gave the go-ahead for the three-dose pediatric Pfizer and Moderna vaccines Wednesday.

June 15, 2022: Michigan reports 15,578 new COVID cases, 137 deaths over past 7 days

Vaccinating children for COVID has been a big conversation since the adult vaccines were released in December 2020. One Grand Ledge mother said she’s looking forward to making an appointment for her 2-year-old.

“For the last two years, we’ve been doing everything in our power to try and keep him safe,” said Jen Norman.

Her son was born at the height of the pandemic. She and her family have been taking big strides to keep him from catching the virus.

“We’re excited about being able to take him out in public a little bit more and have him interact with more kids,” Norman said. “Which we haven’t done a lot of because we don’t want him to get sick. He has siblings with autoimmune issues and we want to keep them healthy too.”

While many people have the mindset that COVID is almost over and there’s no need to vaccinate younger children, medical experts said that isn’t true.

“We’re still seeing COVID everyday. It is still very present in our community and in our country,” said Dr. Pamela Coffey, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Sparrow Hospital. “The value of the vaccine is that as new variants appear -- or new ones circulate -- the vaccine will cover all of them and help prevent serious disease.”

Coffey said it’s also important to know the dose of vaccine that children receive is much less than the adult dosage.

“They want to give the lowest possible amount necessary to get the best response. They trade it down to see where they can get the lowest possible amount that still gives the best effective coverage,” Coffey said. “So the Moderna is coming in at about a quarter of the dose of the adult population.”

As for Normal, she said she’s just glad the wait is finally over.

“We’ve really waited a long time to get this vaccine for the little ones and I feel like that’s because they’ve been taking all of the precautions for safety that they can,” Norman said. “I feel like the more people we can get vaccinated, the healthier we can keep our society as a whole. I feel that’s really important.”

Several parents told News 10 they were not planning on vaccinating their children, but they declined to go on camera.

More information on COVID vaccines can be found on the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services website here.

Related:

Copyright 2022 WILX. All rights reserved.

Subscribe to our News 10 newsletter and receive the latest local news and weather straight to your email every morning.