The White House said children under five could get Covid injections in late June

Pressure has also mounted on Capitol Hill, as lawmakers demanded to know the reason for such a long wait.

Parents are “frustrated, confused, and so am I,” Senator Patty Murray, D-W., who chairs the Senate Health Committee, said at an Food and Drug Administration hearing in April.

late last month, Developed by the Food and Drug Administration their provisional timetable for consideration Apps from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech to allow doses of Covid-19 vaccines for young children; A decision on delegation can come shortly An external panel of experts advising the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) meets for discussion on June 15.

If the FDA grants emergency authorization for one or both of the vaccines, a CDC panel of experts will meet soon after to make recommendations on how to use them. Dr Jha said that if the process is completed by Friday, June 17, the doses can be shipped over the three-day weekend that includes the Juneteenth federal holiday, and are available on Tuesday, 21st.

When this announcement was made, Dr. Jha was going down a delicate path. Last summer Mr. Biden made a fuss when announce Those booster shots will be available to many Americans in mid-September, pending FDA authorization. Only to face resistance From agency leaders, who said they needed more time to review the data.

But Dr Jha said it was important for the White House to plan and be transparent about it.

Dr. Maldonado, a non-voting member of the CDC’s expert advisory committee that makes recommendations on the vaccine, contrasted messages between pediatric and booster doses. Because the Food and Drug Administration has been so vocal about its plans, she said, Thursday’s announcement by Dr. Jha did not surprise doctors and patients.

“That’s a surprise, sure,” she said, “but it’s still exciting to hear that we’re nearly ready to start vaccinating young children.”