Jill Schwartz has been searching Chicago for Covid shots for her three young children, ages 1, 3 and 5. She tried their pediatrician’s office. A pediatric clinic. Walgreens. No luck.
In Womelsdorf, Pa., Rebecca Seidel has been trying to find a vaccine for her 7-year-old son. The pharmacist at a nearby CVS said that the store had no pediatric doses and that two other CVS locations didn’t either. So Ms. Seidel contacted the family’s pediatrician — who directed her to CVS.
Leigh Bullion of Portland, Maine, also struggled to find shots for her 5- and 7-year-old sons. Her pediatrician did not have vaccines for children under 12. Neither did a supermarket-pharmacy chain. And the closest Walgreens offering pediatric doses was about 20 miles away.
“It’s just like a nightmare,” Ms. Bullion said.
The decisions of public-health agencies under President Trump and his health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., have created new obstacles for many people seeking Covid vaccines. But it has been particularly difficult to secure shots for children, including infants and toddlers under the age of 2, who are at higher risk of severe illness from Covid even if they are healthy.
In August, the Food and Drug Administration limited approval of the latest Covid shots, authorizing them only for adults 65 and older and younger people with certain health conditions. A few weeks later, a vaccine advisory panel for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its own guidance, saying that anyone 6 months and up could get the vaccine in consultation with a medical provider.
Children under 12 need a different version of the Covid vaccines. Many pediatricians, as well as pharmacies that carry adult formulations, aren’t stocking pediatric doses. Some cite low demand, but others cite uncertainty about the federal guidelines and logistical problems, including one in particular: The F.D.A. limited its approval of Pfizer’s vaccine to ages 5 and up, which left the Moderna vaccine as the only option for younger children.
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The post Seeking Covid Shots for Their Children, Some Parents Hit a Wall appeared first on New York Times.
