Coronavirus vaccination appointments are being scheduled at pediatric offices and pharmacies across Mississippi as parents look to get their children between the ages of 5 and 11 vaccinated. Becky Marchiel is a mother of two from Oxford. She says her daughter at age three is still too young to get vaccinated, but she is hopeful that getting her five-year-old son vaccinated could help protect them.
“There’s always a sort of nagging worry that your kid might be the exception,” says Marchiel, speaking on those children who do have severe reactions to the coronavirus. “We’ve been really eager for them to get them the shot, even went so far as to look into seeing if we could sign up for trials to see if our kids could get vaccinated even earlier, but that didn’t happen.”
Brandon resident Ellie Banks says she and her husband both got vaccinated as soon as they were eligible because their family is at a higher risk for severe outcomes of the coronavirus, but her seven-year-old son was ineligible until recently. She says these vaccines will help them return to a more normal life, such as going to birthday parties and visiting family for the holidays.
“It has been hard. This is going to put our mind at ease just knowing that our son is vaccinated, he has that extra protection. The likelihood that he would pass it is going to be lower,” says Banks. “It’s just that one extra protection we know we can put in place to protect our family.”
Not all coronavirus vaccine providers will carry doses suitable for the 5-11-year-old age group, and a list of locations with supplies can be found on vaccines.gov.
