NYC health official reveals vaccination roll-out plan details, says kids under 18 not yet in line for vaccine
Children under the age of 18 won’t receive COVID-19 vaccinations in New York City because there has not been enough testing in that age range, the city’s Health Commissioner revealed Friday.
Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi testified to the City Council that neither of the two vaccines expected to arrive in the Big Apple later this month have been “sufficiently tested in children as yet.”
Children between the ages of 12 and 18 have enrolled in trials for both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, Chokshi said, adding that the city hasn’t yet seen data from either.
“We will certainly be following that closely,” he said. “It’s premature to talk about anything like a vaccination requirement until we have that safe and effective vaccine.”
Faith Walters, a rep from Pfizer’s medical affairs team, noted that pregnant women also were not tested for that company’s vaccine, suggesting it would not be immediately available to them as well.
“That is another place where we are working closely with the FDA to look at a potential pathway on pregnancy,” she said.
Some adults will be able to get vaccinated soon, though, starting with the Pfizer vaccine, which is expected to be available in the city on Dec. 15. The Moderna vaccine is expected to become available the following week.
But vaccines are not expected to occur on a widespread basis until the middle of 2021, according to Chokshi.
Healthcare workers, nursing home residents and staffers, as well as essential workers and people at risk with pre-existing conditions like diabetes and heart diseases will be first in line, but the details of exactly who will get preference and when are still being hammered out by state and federal health officials.
The first phase of distribution will be divided into three subgroups. Who will be included in each group is still being discussed, Chokshi said. He noted that people living in prison, jails and homeless shelters would be included in the first phase of distributing the vaccine.
Councilwoman Carlina Rivera, chairwoman of the Council’s Hospitals Committee, expressed concerns that undocumented immigrants could be discouraged from getting vaccinations due to preconditions on vaccine distribution that would require those vaccinated to provide personal information to the federal government.
“Those are things we are reviewing right now,” Chokshi said, adding that the city would seek to protect people’s identities and confidentiality.
Other Council members also raised concerns about public trust of the vaccines among Black and brown New Yorkers, given historical racial injustices and inequity in the medical field. Along with those, Councilman Mark Levine, head of the Council’s Health Committee, wanted to know how efforts by computer hackers to infiltrate vaccine distribution networks might impact public trust.
“How confident are you in the security of our system?” Levine asked.
The Health Department has not heard of any cyber attacks on the city’s public health infrastructure, Chokshi said.
“It is something we’ve been monitoring,” he replied. “We have some dedicated cyber security efforts at the Health Department, including taking a hard look at the citywide immunization registry ... in general, it is a very robust system.”
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