COVID shots for young kids approved, but some parents waiting

C. A. Bridges, Fort Myers News-Press
·6 min read
1
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Welcome to the Florida Coronavirus Watch Newsletter for Tuesday, June 21, 2022. The newsletter comes out every Monday and Thursday or as urgent news dictates.

Latest Florida COVID-19 data

Unlike most states which report coronavirus data directly to the public multiple times a week or daily, Florida reports every other week and then only for the previous seven days, skipping a week of data. State reports include only Florida residents and not visitors for cases and deaths, but do include visitors for vaccination numbers.

Subtracting the state's June 3 report from the June 16 one, we get:

  • New COVID-19 cases in the previous two weeks: 148,758

  • Total COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began: 6,345,663 (6,389,198 per Johns Hopkins)

  • New COVID-19 deaths in the previous two weeks: 506

  • Total COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began: 75,096

  • Last week's testing positivity: State report: 17.2%, Johns Hopkins: 20.53%

State death counts from COVID-19 tend to get updated and revised so that number may not reflect actual deaths occurring in that time period. Case numbers do not include people who self-test at home.

In the latest week COVID-19 cases in Florida were about 5 times what the CDC says is a high level of community transmission. A Sunday report said the state had 3,378 COVID-19 patients in hospital beds, from 3,219 a week earlier.

Sources: Florida Department of Health COVID report, U.S. Health and Human Services (hospitalizations)

Here's what's happening

- COVID vaccines for kids under 5 are finally here. But most parents aren't jumping in line. Tuesday marked the first day COVID-19 vaccines were finally available to children under 5 following authorization last week. But concerns over the testing, the addition to existing vaccinations, and a lot of misinformation are keeping some parents away.

Pediatricians worry the "wait and see" approach parents appear to be taking could mean many children won't be protected against COVID-19 in time for the fall, when many experts predict another surge in cases.

The CDC recommended COVID-19 vaccines for young children Saturday, but shot availability may be delayed a bit in Florida. The DeSantis administration declined to pre-order the vaccines for young children — Florida was the only state to opt out — so hospitals and pediatricians here won't get any of the first two waves of vaccine shipments that began going out Friday.

However, the White House said Friday that Florida doctors could order COVID shots for kids under 5 directly from the federal government, and pharmacies that participate in a federal program, including CVS and Walgreens, will still get their vaccines in the first wave of shipments.

“We are encouraged that after repeated failures by Governor DeSantis to order COVID-19 vaccines even after every other state had ordered, the State of Florida is now permitting health care providers to order COVID-19 vaccines for our youngest children," said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a statement. "We believe it is critical to allow parents everywhere to have the choice to get their kids vaccinated and have a conversation with their pediatrician or health care provider.

Parents, here's what you need to know.

- Florida's COVID vaccination count dropped by 60,000; DeSantis administration won't say why. Florida’s inoculation count dropped by 60,514 people, state Health Department figures released Friday show. The state’s published vaccination total had been dropping by more than 1,000 every two weeks since April 8 in its bi-weekly COVID reports, but this was the first time it recorded a five-figure decrease.

Health Department Press Secretary Jeremy Redfern refused to explain the drop. He has said immunization totals are “preliminary” but has offered no further explanation for the declines. When asked Friday to explain the five-figure decline, he replied in an email, “The same reason as every time.”

- New survey shows confidence from small businesses bouncing back from COVID-19 pandemic, especially in Florida. Of the five states in which the survey was conducted — California, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Wisconsin — Florida had the highest increase in perception of success in the last 12 months. Floridians recorded a 25% increase since 2021 with 79% claiming a positive year in 2022.

COVID info to know

COVID-19 will be an issue for a long time to come, and we think more education is better. Here's what you need to know.

ABOUT COVID

AVOIDING COVID

TESTING

DO YOU HAVE COVID?

What do you want to know about COVID-19? You ask, we'll try to answer

From a reader: "It appears that the vaccine lessens the severity of the virus, but does not prevent you from getting the virus. Yet other vaxs like small pox, chicken pox, etc, do prevent you from getting the illness. Why is that?"

Small pox killed many millions of people for thousands of years before it was eradicated. Chicken pox used to be extremely common. And the vaccines for them had about the same rate of effectiveness as the COVID vaccines: 95% for small pox, 88-98% for chicken pox. Neither are much of a big deal now. Why?

In both cases, once vaccines became available and reliable and delivery systems were improved, there were several massive undertakings over a number of years to get everyone vaccinated and make childhood vaccinations mandatory. Basically, small pox was vaccinated out of existence so there weren't any more cases to catch. And even though the chicken pox vaccine lasts as long as 20 years some children do still get chicken pox today (which is, fortunately, much milder if you've been vaccinated).

The biggest differences between these and COVID-19 are the number of people who still remain unvaccinated and unboosted against COVID-19, allowing the virus somewhere to keep spreading and evolving, and the number of extremely contagious variants popping up. Some viruses such as measles, polio and mumps don't change much so vaccines against them continue to be effective. Coronavirus (an RNA virus) is closer to the flu, which also keeps changing. That's why we get new flu shots every year.

No vaccine is 100% guaranteed. They're not actually intended to prevent all infection, they're designed to prevent serious infection and reduce spread. What works is getting enough people vaccinated so that people who can't be are still protected. (Thanks in large part to anti-vaccination movements, measles is seeing a global resurgence despite having an extremely effective vaccine.) And remember, COVID-19 has only been around a few years. Scientists are still studying the virus and developing vaccines, and how we deal with it in ten years may be very different compared to how we deal with it now.

Anything you'd like to know? Ask your questions here.

Thank you for reading! We appreciate you trusting our statewide journalists to keep you safe and informed. If you are encouraged by our work and want to support your local journalists, please consider subscribing. Know someone who would benefit from this newsletter? Forward this email so they can sign up.

Chris' note of the day: We celebrated Juneteenth over the weekend and yesterday, commemorating the official end of slavery in the U.S., when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, finally learned of their freedoms on June 19, 1865, over two years after U.S. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Many Black Americans used the day to remember not only that final day but to celebrate Black culture, businesses and food. Here's a look at just a few of the celebrations that went on.

Here's what else is happening with the coronavirus in Florida today.

— C. A. Bridges, cbridges@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: COVID shots for young kids approved, but some parents waiting