Health and Medicine People and Community

Doctors hope that teens will line up for COVID-19 vaccines

With the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine receiving emergency use authorization for children and teens 12 to 15 years old, the University of Miami’s Pediatric Mobile Clinic will begin offering the vaccine next week.
The Pfizer coronavirus vaccine is now available to 12- to -15-year-olds. The Pediatric Mobile Clinic Shotz-2-Go program will begin vaccinating the age group at sites throughout South Florida. Photo: Evan Garcia/University of Miami
The Pediatric Mobile Clinic's new program, Shotz-2-Go, will be offering the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to children 12 and older as soon as next week. Photo: Evan Garcia/University of Miami

With the number of child cases of COVID-19 growing each week, doctors at the University of Miami are elated that children and teens ages 12 to 15 are now able to get vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was approved for emergency use authorization in teens and preteens Monday by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), paving the way for another massive segment of the U.S. population to protect themselves against COVID-19.

“I am absolutely thrilled and can’t wait to start immunizing,” said Dr. Lisa Gwynn, director of the Pediatric Mobile Clinic and the Dr. John T. MacDonald Foundation School Health Initiative at the Miller School of Medicine. “We need to get everyone immunized as soon as possible, so our kids can get back to a normal life.”

Dr. Glenn Flores, chair of the Department of Pediatrics and senior associate dean of child health, agreed. “This is a critically important step in protecting our children, further reducing COVID-19 spread, and eventually getting our children back to in-person schooling in the fall,” he said.

Recent studies of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine tested more than 2,200 children ages 12 to 15, and among those who received the vaccine, none contracted COVID-19, which equates to 100 percent effectiveness. Studies of the Moderna vaccine have also had high efficacy rates among the same age group. Both companies are now testing children younger than 12 years old and experts anticipate that elementary school children may be eligible for vaccination by the fall.

And the Pediatric Mobile Clinic’s new program, Shotz-2-Go, will be offering the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to children 12 and older as soon as next week, Gwynn expects. While the FDA has given its nod to the vaccine, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control must now make recommendations about how the vaccine is delivered before doctors and pharmacies can start inoculating.

Gwynn hopes that families from underserved communities, who typically utilize the Pediatric Mobile Clinic’s services, will take advantage of the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine supply. In March, the mobile clinic started offering COVID-19 vaccines to adults. And now, some teens will be able to get the COVID-19 vaccine along with their parents. Although only the Pfizer inoculation is available for those younger than 18 years old, Gwynn said they have a plentiful supply.

“Anyone who wants a vaccine can come to the mobile clinic,” said Gwynn, who is also interim chief of the Division of Child and Adolescent Health. “Our supply has been bolstered and we have all three types of vaccines now.”

Pediatricians across the nation are urgently preparing to vaccinate children 12 and older, which may start as early as Thursday. In Florida, 35 percent of all pediatric COVID-19 cases come from children between the ages of 14 and 17, state reports indicate. In addition, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), children now represent 24 percent of all new COVID-19 cases, while a few weeks ago, they made up just 20 percent of the new cases in the U.S. If teens get the vaccine, they will be protecting themselves and everyone around them, including younger siblings who cannot be vaccinated yet, Gwynn pointed out.

“We’ve seen student-athletes have serious respiratory and cardiac implications from COVID-19 infections. So, kids aren’t without harm from this virus, and more people vaccinated will certainly mean fewer pediatric deaths from COVID-19,” added Gwynn, who is also president of the Florida chapter of AAP.

Flores is optimistic that the expansion of vaccine eligibility could also help reduce the health disparities in the U.S. that were highlighted by COVID-19. In particular, Flores said Latino children have six times more the COVID-19 infection rate, and Black children twice the infection rate, compared to white children. And among the nation’s most severe pediatric cases of COVID-19, where a child has died, Black children have triple the death rate and Latino children have double the death rate compared to white children.

“Multiple studies document that there are unacceptable COVID-19 racial and ethnic disparities, and this will help level the playing field,” Flores said.

Moreover, both doctors reported that with full COVID-19 vaccination, children older than 12 will have more freedom to socialize, play sports, and attend school without the constant interruptions of quarantine each time they are exposed to a student who tested positive. Miami-Dade County Public Schools recently passed a new measure stating that students who are fully vaccinated will no longer have to quarantine after an exposure, as long as they aren’t showing any symptoms, said Gwynn, who is also on the school system’s superintendent’s reopening committee.

For parents who are hesitant to vaccinate their child, Gwynn said that while she  respects their concerns, that in this case, the benefits to the children outweigh the small risks that come with any new vaccine.

“The practice of medicine is based on science, and we never do anything that we feel would put children’s lives in danger,” Gwynn noted. “But until kids are vaccinated, the pandemic will not end. It’s just like measles and other diseases, we had to immunize kids to eradicate them.”

To get vaccinated through the Pediatric Mobile Clinic’s Shotz-2-Go program, see their schedule for next week below, or check their website for more updated information.

  • Monday, May 17: Visitation Catholic Church, 1821 NW 22 St., Miami, Florida 33142 (9 a.m.–12 p.m.)
  • Tuesday, May 18: Center for Haitian Studies, 8260 NE 2nd, Miami, Florida 33138 (9 a.m.–12 p.m.)
  • Wednesday, May 19: Air Base K-8 Center for International Education, 12829 S.W. 272 St., Homestead, Florida 33032
  • Friday, May 21: Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, 11691 NW 25th, Doral, Florida 33172 (9 a.m.–noon)
  • Saturday, May 22: Little Havana Health Fair and Vaccinations (next to José Martí Park), 434, SW 3rd, Miami, Florida 33130

To make an appointment for the Pediatric Mobile Clinic’s services and/or free vaccines, call 305-243-6407, although walk-ins are accepted. To get your child tested for COVID-19, call 305-243-2059.