These Pa. pharmacies are among the few carrying COVID vaccines for young children

While pharmacies played a central role in getting adults and older children vaccinated against COVID-19, that won’t be the case when it comes to vaccinating children under 5 years old.

Federal regulations prevent pharmacists from vaccinating children younger than 3, leaving just 3- and 4-year-olds eligible to receive doses at a pharmacy. For many businesses, that’s just too small a population to stock the smaller doses recommended for the youngest children. The result is a drastic reduction in the places parents can get their young children shots. Only a third of vaccine providers in Philadelphia — 56 out of 175 — are offering it to children under 5.

A few, though, have decided they want to find ways to stay involved in the last demographic to become eligible for COVID vaccination.

“People actually thought I was crazy that I opted in to do under 5,” said Mayank Amin, owner of Skippack Pharmacy in Montgomery County. “At this point, we’ve vaccinated 85,000 people in our county. I was not going to leave this last group hanging.”

Pediatricians note the restrictions on pharmacists vaccinating infants and toddlers are a good idea, even if that does limit parents’ options. A caring, patient approach is required for very young children and their parents.

“Children, our babies, need a totally different touch than adults‚” said Ala Stanford, a pediatric surgeon, founder of the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium and now the head of the region’s Health and Human Services office.

Amin, a parent of a 1-year-old, has had children 5 and older referred to his pharmacy for vaccination by pediatricians in the area, he said, and he wanted to continue to be a resource for doctors’ offices that weren’t carrying the vaccine themselves. In the first week doses were available for children younger than 5, he said, his pharmacy vaccinated about 500 children ages 3 and 4, including people who came from New Jersey and Philadelphia.

“That’s probably a lot more than we thought we were going to do,” he said.

Because of the restrictions for children younger than 3, Amin and other pharmacists have sought to host clinics for children in partnership with organizations with medical staff who can give shots to infants and toddlers. On Thursday, Amin worked with Montgomery County to host a clinic at Hatfield Elementary School. Wearing the Superman costume he dons to put kids at ease, he hoped to get doses to children before the start of the July 4 holiday. The clinic vaccinated 100 toddlers and infants, and 50 children older than 3.

Marc Ost, co-owner of Eric’s Rx Shoppe in Horsham, and Ardmore pediatrician Madeleine Weiser saw a smaller turnout for a similar clinic they hosted this week. That’s in part, Ost thinks, because he stocked only the Pfizer vaccine. Moderna has been particularly popular with parents, he said, because the two-dose series can be administered over the course of a month. Pfizer’s three doses have to be administered over almost three months. Pfizer’s vaccine performed slightly better than Moderna’s in clinical trials, but both offer strong protection against severe illness.

Vaccines for children younger than 5 were approved only two weeks ago, and data on their administration are not yet available. But statewide about 30% of children ages 5 to 9 have received at least one vaccine dose, making them the least vaccinated age demographic in the state, despite being eligible for vaccination since October. Health-care providers say they still face skepticism and misinformation about vaccines for children, despite trials showing them to be safe.

“It’s definitely hesitancy, but it’s also just lack of urgency,” Ost said. “Come the fall when kids are back in school, we’ll see a little bit of an uptick.”

Between 20% and 25% of children under age 5 were likely to get their shots quickly, said Weiser. She estimated that initial rush of parents eager to vaccinate their children will last a few weeks and then will fade as most parents consider whether to seek the shots and see how other children react.

“Those who want to see what the results are are waiting until the end of the summer,” Weiser said.

She thinks pediatric offices are the ideal place for parents to get their young children vaccinated but said pharmacies’ participation meant parents had more options and flexibility in getting shots for their kids.

“Any way to get these kids vaccinated is a plus,” she said.

Staff writer Chris Williams contributed to this article.