A Wide Gap Between Vaccination Rates Can Slow Down The Progress

The southern states have one-third of eligible youngsters who are fully vaccinated. This creates a gap between vaccination rates as many of the adolescents are yet pending their vaccine shots.

And this gap is known to create a slow-down in the progress of the nation reaching close to the end of the pandemic. Trump’s FDA Commissioner mentions how Delta has not even run through yet.

A Wide Gap Between Vaccination Rates Can Slow Down The Progress

For the age group 12 to 17, a key demographic that slows down other age groups which are just 47% fully vaccinated, throughout the nation, several southern states are moving even further behind.

Few states which are known to have less than one-third of eligible youngsters vaccinated are Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee, as per a report in CNN. This could pose a greater challenge towards moving forward, experts worry.

The dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, which is at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, Dr. Peter Hotez said, We are back at having this geographic division where families or parents are hesitant on vaccinating their young children from the age group 12-17. Hence we might be glancing through a low uptake of the vaccine in the Southern States of the USA and in the Mountain West, which is going to land up in a problem of the nation’s progress towards the end of the pandemic, slowing down.

As we are aware of the most contagious variant existing now, which is the Delta variant, now continues to be the most common way of the virus in the nation. This keeps unvaccinated kids at a higher risk as the strain is known to be even dangerously transmissible.

The CDC’s Agenda of Boosters and Children:

Two meetings have been planned in the coming week between the Vaccine advisors to the US CDC while discussing more Coronavirus vaccine boosters for the age group 5-11. Vaccine boosters for Moderna and Johnson & Johnson meeting shall occur on Wednesday and Thursday which is October 20-21. Additionally, ACIP which is the abbreviation of an advisory committee on Immunization Practices shall meet November 2nd  to 3rd to discuss the Covid-19 vaccine boosters and pediatric.

Before Haloween, it is seen unlikely for children from the age of 11 or younger, in the United States of America, to begin their vaccination process. To discuss boosters, the US Food and Drugs Administration has booked meetings of their advisors on the 14th of October and 15th as well.

So far, few parents are eagerly willing to vaccinate their children aged 5-11 but as soon as the vaccine is available for that age group. A survey was conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation Vaccine Monitor, last month.

Once the shots are accepted and approved, more coronavirus vaccine mandates shall be on the horizon, for the children, on the state level. Dr. Vivek Murthy who is a US Surgeon General said one reason we are going to see the states likely move in that path, post-authorization, is since we all want our kids who go back to school and be able to learn, spend time outside the house and be safe at the same time. We have lost more than hundreds of kids to Coronavirus and more than thousands have been hospitalized. With one safe and effective vaccine, this can be prevented. It has been recorded by the Centers for Disease Control that more than 600 children have passed away due to Covid-19. Post-authorization, we might see progress towards the end of the pandemic as the youngsters are pending the vaccine shots and once that is done, once we are all vaccinated, we shall see a whole new side of the world, once again.