Marin Hopes To Jab 12-To-15 Year-Olds 'Within Hours'

MARIN COUNTY, CA – Marin County is partnering with local schools to get shots in the arms of 12-to 15-year-olds, and it hopes to implement the aggressive rollout “within hours,” Health Officer Matt Willis said Monday in a television interview.

Willis' KTVU interview followed the Food and Drug Administration’s announcement earlier in the day that it has granted emergency youth authorization for the Pfizer vaccine for 12-to-15-year-olds.

The vaccine still needs to clear two regulatory hurdles before it shots can go into arms of those under 16.

The first one is Wednesday when it goes before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee.

Should the committee grant the vaccine its blessings, it would go before a state review that’s expected to evaluate the vaccine immediately after CDC approval is granted.

“We’re really just hoping it’ll be a matter of hours before we get that final approval in Marin and we can start getting shots into arms,” Willis told KTVU.

Anyone under 18 requires consent of their parent or guardian before the vaccine can be administered.

Schools would start administering the first doses of vaccines on Friday through the weekend and into next week, Marin County Superintendent of Schools Mary Jane Burke told KTVU.

“All the students who want this vaccination between the 12 and 15 range will have both doses prior to the end of the school year,” Burke said.

Willis said in a KTVU interview on Sunday that he hopes to vaccinate 50 percent of the county’s 12-to 15-year-olds within a week once the rollout begins.

"We've got multiple locations teed up and ready to go," Will said. "We've got our mobile vans are waiting to go to schools."

Vaccinating 12-to 15-year-olds figures to be a major step in a region that appears to be well on its way toward herd immunity

As of Tuesday 85.7 percent of Marin residents over the age of 16 have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 71.0 percent are fully vaccinated according to the county's vaccine dashboard.