Leaders Must NOT Leave Children Behind With Updated COVID Vaccines

August 20, 2022 — With the news that Omicron-specific vaccines will soon be available for everyone 12 and older, we are once again seeing young children left behind.

This updated vaccine will target BA 4 and BA 5 sub variants as well as the viruses’ original strain. As approximately 90% of COVID infections the US are currently made up of BA 5, this new booster is clearly necessary to protect all ages of the population, especially now that the vast majority of children under 12 are attending (or about to attend) schools with no mitigations in place.

White House Covid coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said that the boosters will be superior to the current boosters and will “work much better at preventing infection transmission and serious illness.” While we at Protect Their Future are grateful for this advancement in vaccines, we insist that our political and healthcare leaders include children under 12 as part of the population to receive these boosters, especially as the CDC has recently rolled back any and all protections against COVID which were formerly in place.

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About Protect Their Future:

Protect Their Future is a grassroots group of physicians, parents, and activists advocating on behalf of young children and patients to ensure health leaders put kids first in public health policies. Follow us on Twitter at @PTF_org