Dallasites Seek Herd Immunity After FDA Approves Vaccine for Kids

DALLAS, TX —"Herd immunity" — that elusive goal by which the population at large can consider the pandemic a thing of the past, reached a new milestone Monday. And Dallasites are moving quickly to jump at the opportunity.

Emergency use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for children aged 12 to 15 was approved yesterday by the Food and Drug Administration. Inoculations for Dallas area kids could be under way at the city's Fair Park COVID-19 vaccine site by Saturday, according to county officials.

At the moment, says Dr. Philip Huang, the Dallas County Public Health Director, parents are being encouraged to pre-register youngsters for vaccination on the county website. Anyone 17 years old or younger needs the consent of a parent to be vaccinated.

The FDA evaluation studied over 2,000 12-to-15 year old U.S. citizens. Upon examination, the results determined zero incidences of coronavirus infection among adolescents who'd completed their scheduled vaccinations. Among those who received a placebo, 18 contracted COVID-19.

Sign up to support local journalism and you may receive coupons valued at up to $100 or more every month for use at local Dallas, TX businesses.

The children also seemed to accumulate more virus-fighting antibodies than found in earlier studies within the same age group. Test subjects received the same dosage of the vaccine as adults and displayed similar side effects to those reported in the population at large, including pain at the injection site and incidences of aches, chills and flulike fevers. Scientists say these are common signs of an active and engaged immune response.

The race between herd immunity and COVID-19 variants that might become immune to the vaccine has been sewing anxiety among health professionals since the first mutations were discovered late last year. Additional shots-in-arms could certainly blunt the problem, and could do much to protect middle schoolers and high school students as they head back to in-person lessons next fall.

There are countries already vaccinating 16-year olds, and days ago, Canada brought their vaccination age there down to 12.

Immunizing children will also go some distance in relieving another kind of problem harder to spot — the worry of school administrators, teachers and staff, as well as parents who'd like to get back to work and health officials with one eye on the calendar and another on COVID-19 hospitalizations and mortality rates.

Looking for more Dallas news? Subscribe.