White House details plans to vaccinate 28M children age 5-11
Kids aged 5 to 11 will soon be able to get a COVID-19 shot at their pediatrician’s office, local pharmacy and potentially even their school
By ZEKE MILLER | Associated Press
10/20/2021
WASHINGTON (AP) — Children age 5 to 11 will soon be able to get a COVID-19 shot at their pediatrician’s office, local pharmacy and potentially even their school, the White House said Wednesday as it detailed plans for the expected authorization of the Pfizer shot for younger children in a matter of weeks.
Federal regulators will meet over the next two weeks to weigh the benefits of giving shots to kids, after lengthy studies meant to ensure the safety of the vaccines.
Within hours of formal approval, expected after the Food and Drug Administration signs off and a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel meeting scheduled for Nov. 2-3, doses will begin shipping to providers across the country, along with smaller needles necessary for injecting young kids, and within days will be ready to go into the arms of kids on a wide scale.
About 15 million doses will be shipped to providers across the country in the first week after approval, the White House said.
“We’re completing the operational planning to ensure vaccinations for kids ages 5-11 are available, easy and convenient,” said White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients on Wednesday. “We’re going to be ready, pending the FDA and CDC decision.”
The Pfizer vaccine requires two doses spaced three weeks apart and a two-week wait for full protection to kick in, meaning kids who get their first shot of the two-dose Pfizer vaccine within a couple weeks of the expected approval in early November will be fully vaccinated by Christmas.
The Biden administration notes the nationwide campaign to extend the protection of vaccination to the school-going cohort will not look like the start of the country’s vaccine rollout 10 months ago, when scarcity of doses and capacity issues meant a painstaking wait for many Americans. The country now has ample supplies of the Pfizer shot to vaccinate the roughly 28 million kids who will soon be eligible, White House officials said, and have been working for months to ensure widespread availability of shots once approved.
More than 25,000 pediatricians and primary care providers have already signed on to administer COVID-19 vaccine shots to kids, the White House said, in addition to the tens of thousands of retail pharmacies that are already administering shots to adults. Hundreds of school- and community-based clinics will also be funded and supported by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help speed putting shots into arms.
The White House is also preparing to mobilize a stepped-up campaign to educate parents and kids about the safety of the shots and the ease of getting them. As has been the case for adult vaccinations, the administration believes trusted messengers — educators, doctors, and community leaders — will be vital to encouraging vaccinations.
While children are at lower risk than older people of having serious side effects from COVID-19, those serious consequences do occur – and officials note that vaccination both dramatically reduces those chances and will reduce the spread of the more transmissible delta variant in communities, contributing to the nation’s broader recovery from the pandemic.
“COVID has also disrupted our kids lives. It’s made school harder, it’s disrupted their ability to see friends and family, it’s made youth sports more challenging,” U.S. surgeon general Dr. Vivek Murthy told NBC on Wednesday. “Getting our kids vaccinated, we have the prospect of protecting them, but also getting all of those activities back that are so important to our children.”
Murthy said the administration, which is promoting employer vaccine mandates for adults, is leaving the question of requirements for schools to local and state officials, but called them “reasonable.”
“Those are decisions on, when it comes to school requirements, that are made by localities and by states,” he told NBC’s “Today.” “You’ve seen already some localities and states talk about vaccine requirements for kids. And I think it’s a reasonable thing to consider to get those vaccination rates high. And it’s also consistent with what we’ve done for other childhood vaccines, like measles, mumps, polio.”
The U.S. has purchased 65 million doses of the Pfizer pediatric shot — expected to be one third the dosage for adults and adolescents — according to officials, more than enough for every kid in the age group. They will ship in smaller packages of about 100 doses each, so that more providers can deliver them, and they can be stored for up to 10 weeks at standard refrigeration temperatures.
About 219 million Americans aged 12 and up, or 66% of the total population, have received a COVID-19 shot and nearly 190 million are fully vaccinated.
Tel: 551-580-4856 | Email: F.WINNIE.S@GMAIL.COM
诚招美国和加拿大法律服务代理
因公司发展需要，诚招美国和加拿大法律服务代理。
要求：
懂英语、或西班牙语、或法语。
能合法工作有社安号或工号。
无需改行， 可以兼职。
大学生和有销售经验优先考虑。
自雇生意公司发美国报税1099，加拿大T4A
有意了解详情， 请扫码加微信， 非诚勿扰！
California to require Covid vaccine for schoolchildren, Newsom announces
“This is about keeping our kids safe & healthy,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in announcing the mandate.
By Tim Fitzsimons
10/01/2021
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday announced that the Covid-19 vaccine will be required for the state’s schoolchildren, the first such mandate in the nation.
“CA will require our kids to get the COVID-19 vaccine to come to school. This will go into effect following full FDA approval. Our schools already require vaccines for measles, mumps and more. Why? Because vaccines work. This is about keeping our kids safe & healthy,” the governor wrote in a tweet.
The federal government has fully approved the Covid vaccine for those 16 and over, but only granted an emergency authorization for anyone 12 to 15. Once federal regulators fully approve the vaccine for that group, the state will require students in seventh through 12th grades to get vaccinated in both public and private schools, Newsom’s office said.
The state will require the Covid vaccine for students in kindergarten through sixth grade only after the federal government has given final approval for anyone 5 to 11.
The Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools, Debra Duardo, said she supported the governor’s vaccine mandate: “Our students deserve stability, access to school-based resources, services, and support.”
“We are mindful that there is still work to do to build trust and confidence in the vaccine among our school communities,” Duardo said in a statement.
Duardo said the Los Angeles County Office of Education “will convene a working taskforce of superintendents to support the implementation of this requirement in schools throughout LA County.”
The California Teachers Association also voiced support for the mandate.
“Teaching and learning are most effective in person, and the COVID-19 vaccine is a proven measure to prevent life threatening illness, keeping schools safe and open for in-person instruction, and will get us closer to being able to put this devastating pandemic behind us,” CTA President E. Toby Boyd said in a statement
Boyd said that ninety percent of CTA members are vaccinated, “and an overwhelming majority supports a vaccine mandate for students and staff.”
The announcement comes as infections in most of California have dropped markedly in the last month. But Newsom has been emboldened after easily defeating a recall effort last month following a campaign where he emphasized his commitment to vaccine mandates to end the pandemic.
Hoboken believed to be first in state to issue mandate for students 12 and up: Get vaccine or face weekly testing
By Teri West | The Jersey Journal
8/26/2021
Hoboken students who are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine but have not gotten the shot will be tested for the virus weekly, the public school district announced this week in a move that is believed to be a first in the state.
Students 11 years of age and younger, who are too young to be vaccinated, will also be tested on a weekly basis at random, according to the district’s new policy.
The steps the Hoboken public schools are taking go further than a state mandate that require testing for unvaccinated school staff at least once a week.
While many colleges and universities have required student vaccinations, it is thus far rare in K-12 school systems, and no other district in New Jersey is believed to have made this move.
Hoboken was the only school district in Hudson County to offer students the opportunity to learn in-person, full-time for nearly the entire 2021-21 school year, and on occasions it required students to get tested when returning from breaks. This new policy simply feels like an extension of last year’s safety measures, said Superintendent Christine Johnson.
“Parents do still have some questions, but it’s more the parents who were on remote last year … and also some new families to the district,” Johnson said. “For the most part it has been overly positive, the responses we’ve been getting.”
Students 12 and older who haven’t been vaccinated will be tested for COVID-19 on site, the district policy says. The district will bill each family’s health insurance provider for the tests and will cover the cost for uninsured families with federal coronavirus relief funds.
“We have ensured that no family will be charged or sent a bill,” the policy states.
Student under 12, will also be tested, though less regularly. The district will select a random sample of the younger students to be tested every Friday. Those students will be notified the Wednesday before and may get tested offsite if they choose, the district said. The policy was first reported by Hudson County View.
The percentage of students tested each week will be based on the state’s COVID-19 positivity rate. The district is not requiring testing for vaccinated students.
Johnson said she does not view the policy as a way to incentivize parents to get their children vaccinated.
“It was really more to ensure that we were testing our older kids who needed to be tested on a more regular basis because of things like athletics and after-school activities where they are very close,” she said.
In New York City, the only similar measure is a requirement for certain student athletes to be vaccinated in order to compete. Los Angeles Unified School district students are being tested weekly regardless of whether they’re vaccinated.
Culver City, California, meanwhile, last week issued what is believed to be the first vaccine mandate for K-12 students, according to the New York Times. The school district is giving students until mid-November to provide proof of vaccination, a letter sent to families said.
Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla said he supports the local district’s decision.
“I applaud Superintendent Dr. Christine Johnson and her team for instituting a vaccine or testing requirement for all faculty and students 12 years of age and up this school year,” Bhalla said in a statement. “This robust plan to continue to provide safe, in-person educational instruction will ensure that students and families feel protected in the classroom and will limit the spread of COVID-19 among our children.
“I strongly encourage all other institutions and businesses in Hoboken to adopt similar policies.”
RANKINGS: Website Names NJ Public High School Overall Best In America
By Cecilia Levine
5/02/2021
Niche.com has released its annual rankings of the best public high schools in America.
The website graded every school across the U.S. based on a “rigorous analysis of key statistics and millions of reviews from students and parents using data from the U.S. Department of Education,” it said.
Bergen County Academies in Hackensack was crowned the overall best in the U.S. The school earned an A+ in every category: Academics, diversity, teachers, college prep, clubs/activities, and health/safety.
The website also ranked the best schools in New Jersey. Here are the top 20:
- 20. Communications High School, Wall
- 19. Livingston Senior High School
- 18. Marine Academy of Science and Technoloy, Highlands
- 17. Northern Highlands Regional High School
- 16. Union County Vocational
- 15. West Windsor Plainsboro High School South
- 14. Academy for Allied Health Science, Scotch Plains
- 13. Tenafly High School
- 12. Dr. Ronald E. McNair High School, Jersey City
- 11. Academy for Information Technology, Scotch Plains
- 10. Millburn Senior High School
- 9. Middlesex County Academy for Science, Mathematics, & Engineering Technologies
- 8. Princeton High School
- 7. Bergen County Tech, Teterboro
- 6. The Academy for Math, Science and Engineering, Rockaway
- 5. Union County Magnet High School, Scotch Plains
- 4. OCVTS, Manahawkin
- 3. Biotechnology High School, Freehold
- 2. High Technology High School, Lincroft
- 1. Bergen County Academies, Hackensack
Click here for Niche’s ranking of New Jersey’s public high schools.
