Parents are already being urged by public well being officers to get their younger youngsters vaccinated towards COVID-19 now that kid-size doses of Pfizer-BioNTech are obtainable to them. And in cities resembling Chicago and New York, mother and father now have an added incentive to get kids inoculated: $100 in money.
New York Metropolis for weeks has offered the financial incentive to different age teams eligible to get a COVID-19 vaccine, however youngsters 5 to 11 years previous are now additionally eligible for the cash, Mayor Invoice de Blasio mentioned in a information briefing on Thursday.
“It buys a whole lot of candy, that’s right,” the mayor quipped, when answering questions concerning the metropolis’s vaccination marketing campaign, which now consists of those that’ll want parental consent to roll up their sleeves. The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention on Tuesday really useful that youngsters 5 years and older get vaccinated towards the coronavirus. Vaccines had beforehand been cleared by the CDC for under these 12 and older.
New York Metropolis expects to obtain 330,000 vaccine doses in the following few days, and plans to maintain one-day vaccination clinics at faculties across the metropolis subsequent week, Dr. Dave Chokshi, the town’s well being commissioner, instructed the gathering. The $100 carrot got here with an attraction from the doctor to mother and father and caregivers to “get your children vaccinated as soon as possible.”
“If we were to vaccinate every New Yorker aged 5 to 11, we would prevent an estimated 38,000 cases of COVID-19,” mentioned Chokshi, citing a CDC presentation earlier in the week.
“Vaccine-preventable disease”
“Remember that some of these infections also result in hospitalizations, ICU admissions and long-term effects from COVID-19 like shortness of breath and brain fog,” Chokshi cautioned. “With the vaccine we have a chance to make COVID-19 largely a vaccine-preventable disease among kids, similar to chickenpox, rubella and rotaviru — all diseases for which childhood immunization is now routine.”
Chicago well being officers are also offering families $100 gift cards for youngsters 5 to 11 once they get vaccinated at metropolis well being occasions or clinics. In San Antonio, Texas, mother and father and guardians can collect a $100 reward card for H-E-B grocery shops once they convey their small ones into metropolis public well being clinics to get vaccinated. Louisiana is also offering $100 to households with 5- to 11-year-olds who get their photographs.
Nonetheless, there’s proof that such incentives could not work as supposed. A research final month discovered state-run vaccine lotteries to be ineffective in boosting vaccination charges.
The Delta variant led to file surges in COVID-19 hospitalizations amongst youthful youngsters this 12 months, CDC knowledge suggests, regardless of round 38% of kids doubtlessly having antibodies from a previous an infection.
Hundreds of kids ages 5 to 11 years previous have been hospitalized for COVID-19, and 172 have died. Although they are at a far decrease threat of extreme COVID-19 than adults, many youngsters with the virus have additionally confronted long-term negative effects or issues of the illness.