Merced County kicks off vaccinations for youth 12 and up, following FDA authorization

Merced County has begun administering Pfizer coronavirus vaccines to children age 12 and up.

Earlier this week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expanded emergency-use authorization for the Pfizer shots to include children in the 12-15 age group.

The expansion only applies to the Pfizer vaccine. Two other available vaccine brands — Moderna and Johnson & Johnson — are still not authorized for people younger than 18.

On Thursday, Merced Union High School District in partnership with Castle Family Health Centers held a COVID-19 vaccination clinic on the campus of Livingston High for students ages 12 and older.

The clinic was also open to parents and family members. There were 120 people signed up for Thursday’s clinic. A second clinic is scheduled to happen at the campus in three weeks.

“It was a good line. And then when I came inside it was pretty swift,” said Tobias Harman, a sophomore at Atwater High who was getting his first shot Thursday. “It was a clean process. We just sat down, she gave me the shot and then I was done.”

New cases Thursday

Merced County on Thursday reported 16 new confirmed cases of coronavirus and one death.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic in March last year, there have been 461 confirmed deaths and 31,914 cases. Around 357 of those cases are considered active.

Thursday’s death was a man between ages 35-49 and it has not been confirmed whether he had underlying health conditions.

Roughly 29 percent of Merced County’s eligible population has been fully vaccinated, according to the Department of Public Health. Ten Merced County residents were hospitalized with COVID-19 as of Thursday.

Merced County is among 11 California counties that remain in red Tier 2, indicating continued “substantial” spread of the virus in the county.

The others are Del Norte, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Shasta, Solano, Stanislaus, Tehama and Yuba counties.

Red tier is the second-most restrictive level of the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy.

The blueprint and its tiers are intended to provide for a gradual reopening of businesses and other activities from broad closures and restrictions enacted last year to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus from person to person.

Side effects

The CDC said Thursday those who have been vaccinated can return to just about any activity they did before the pandemic. Masks would only be required if the vaccinated person entered a building that required a face covering, the CDC said.

Children are far less likely than adults to get seriously ill from having COVID-19, though the virus is sometimes fatal, and thousands have been hospitalized.

By last month, those ages 12 to 17 were making up slightly more of the nation’s new coronavirus infections than adults over 65 — a group that’s now largely vaccinated.

The two-dose vaccine made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech was studied in more than 2,000 kids ages 12 to 15. There were no cases of COVID-19 among vaccinated kids compared with 16 in the group given dummy shots. Kids also developed higher levels of virus-fighting antibodies than vaccinated adults.

Side effects are the same as adults experience, mostly sore arms and flu-like fever, chills or aches that signal the immune system is revving up.

CDC’s advisers did caution that those temporary shot reactions may be even more common if people get a COVID-19 shot at the same time as another vaccination.

Pfizer is not the only company seeking to lower the age limit for its vaccine. Moderna recently said preliminary results from its study in 12- to 17-year-olds show strong protection and no serious side effects, data the FDA will need to scrutinize.

As for even younger children, both companies have begun tests in youngsters ages 6 months to 11 years. Those studies explore if different doses are needed at the youngest ages. The FDA plans to hold a public meeting next month to debate exactly what evidence is needed.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This story was originally published May 13, 2021 at 6:14 PM.