Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi and other Southern states have fallen behind when it comes to vaccinating children against COVID-19, The Washington Post reported Friday.
Earlier this month, Pfizer BioNTech vaccines became available in the U.S. for children ages 5 to 11.
While children under 12 do not often get severe cases of COVID-19, they can spread it to others. A small number of children are also at risk of developing a serious condition called multisystem inflammatory syndrome, or MIS-C, that can require hospitalization.
As the holiday season starts this weekend, public health officials are concerned that a lag in vaccinations for kids could contribute to another surge.
“I think it is a potentially dangerous situation,” said Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “You’re going to have a large number of susceptible people all in one place, especially in communities where vaccine rates are generally low and the transmission is higher.”
A new variant of COVID-19 – omicron – that could cause a surge was also identified the day after Thanksgiving in South Africa.
In some states – such as Vermont, where nearly a third of eligible children have gotten their shots – parents were eager to get their children vaccinated. However, Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana each have only immunized about 3 percent of children in that age group. All three states are also among the top five states with the highest COVID-19 death rates.
Overall the 10 states with the lowest rates of vaccinations for children include eight in the South: Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Georgia, Tennessee, West Virginia, Delaware and Oklahoma. Wyoming and South Dakota also have low rates.
Mark Kline, senior vice president, chief medical officer and physician in chief at Children’s Hospital New Orleans, said his hospital has seen many parents eager to get their kids vaccinated. However, he has also met families that are split over the decision.
In Louisiana, political powers are also split on their vaccine stance. While Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards supports adding COVID-19 vaccines to the required panel of inoculations for all K-12 students, Republican state Attorney General Jeff Landry vowed to fight the health department proposal.
“Without many more families getting their children vaccinated, we know many children in our state remain unprotected and we know that our state remains vulnerable to future, equally devastating surges,” said Aly Neel, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Health Department.
Karen Landers, an assistant state health officer and pediatrician in Alabama, said state hospitals have had to implement surge protocols after children’s wards and children’s hospitals were overwhelmed during earlier pandemic waves.
According to the White House, 10 percent of children ages 5 to 11 in the U.S. had received their first COVI-19 shot as of Nov. 17 and around 10 to 12 percent of children in that age group are expected to be fully vaccinated by Christmas.
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