MOUNT PLEASANT, N.C. — The Food and Drug Administration is expected to make vaccines available to children ages 5 to 11.
What You Need To Know
FDA may approve COVID-19 vaccine shots for kids 5 to 11
FDA vaccine advisory committee expected to talk about approval on Tuesday
Local mom and pharmacist plans to get her child vaccinated
Health officials on Wednesday outlined the White House’s plan to distribute and administer the shots, once they become available.
Experts say getting kids vaccinated is a crucial step to ending the pandemic.
As a result, pharmacies and families are getting ready for what that could mean for them.
Moose Pharmacy in Mount Pleasant is one of many sites that is ready for when that approval happens.
Pharmacist Dr. Tory Brooms is helping the store get ready, and she’s also a mother of three.
While her other two kids are too young, her oldest son is 5 years old and is expected to be in the eligible age group.
“I am very relieved,” she said. “It’s so stressful. The whole pandemic has been really hard on parents, to balance schools shutting down and a full-time job."
Her kids wear masks in school, but she knows there are times when the mask has to come off, like for lunch. She says the vaccine will give her 5-year-old an extra layer of protection while at school.
“It’s so important for our kids to have a sustainable education and now to be pulled out of school every week due to exposures and potential sicknesses,” she said. "They just need the stability again.”
She says if the vaccine gets approved, it will take a few days for the Board of Pharmacy to update their protocol surrounding the vaccine.
But they won’t be vaccinating kids with the vaccines they already have on hand.
Pharmacist Dr. Joe Moose, owner at Moose Pharmacy, says they have to wait for special vaccine shipments just for kids.
“The actual ingredient is the same as the Pfizer vaccine that adults are getting, but the amount is less,” he said. "So it’s about a third of the active ingredient, but the amount of that would be so tiny, it would be hard to draw up in a syringe so we dilute it a little differently. It’s a product specifically for the pediatric population.”
He says they already put in their order for a shipment, so once the vaccine gets approved, their shipment will be on its way.
The FDA's vaccine advisory committee is expected to talk about the approval on Tuesday with a decision expected in the near future.