Florida doctors can now order Covid vaccines for kids under 5
Florida officials on Friday began allowing doctors to order the newly authorized Covid vaccine for the youngest children, while limiting the state’s
WASHINGTON — Florida officials on Friday began allowing doctors to order the newly authorized Covid vaccine for the youngest children, while limiting the state’s involvement in helping get the vaccine to them.
Florida is the only state that hasn’t requested from the federal government any doses of the vaccine for children ages six months to 5 years old, and until Friday no doctors in the state had been able to place an order for it with the state’s health department.
Because Florida just began taking orders from doctors on Friday, unlike other states that have been placing orders over the past two weeks, patients in Florida will receive those doses later than those in other states, said White House Covid coordinator Ashish Jah.
FDA panel recommends emergency use of Moderna Covid vaccine for kidsJune 15, 202202:09COVID vaccinations for children under 5 could start next weekJune 13, 202200:28“This is an encouraging first step. But the governor’s failure comes at a price to parents and families of Florida,” Jha said on a call with reporters on Friday. “The president has instructed us to work as quickly as possible to get doses to the families and pediatricians of the great state of Florida, but because of the governor’s failure to order doses the way every other state in the country has, we expect doses to Florida’s pediatrician offices and children’s hospitals to be delayed, arriving days after those in other states.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said earlier this week that the state wouldn’t be distributing the vaccine for the youngest kids and wasn’t recommending parents give it to those children. While DeSantis said doctors would be able to place individual orders, the state didn’t provide doctors the means to do so until Friday.
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