New England states are vaccinating young children at a faster rate than the rest of the country, according to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday.
Nationally, more than 2 million children, or 7 percent of kids ages 5-11, got their first shot, and Massachusetts leads the nation in child vaccinations, with about 20 percent of an estimated half-million kids receiving their first doses.
Vermont and Rhode Island each vaccinated about 18 percent of kids in that age group.
Texas showed the least amount of kid vaccinations, with only 1 percent of their young children vaccinated, followed by Alabama with 1.5 percent.
There are reporting lags with the data. The Biden administration released initial figures Nov. 10, but the CDC did not release data until Friday. CDC reporting can often lag behind states, such as Maryland, which had only 5,000 child vaccinations according to the agency. According to the state’s health department, nearly 54,000 kids under the age of 10 have been vaccinated.
The CDC gave the green light Nov. 2 for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for kids ages 5-11. It’s the only vaccine authorized for children under 12 years old, as well as teenagers. Moderna and Johnson & Johnson have not submitted applications for younger children yet, but a study released in October showed a strong immune response to Moderna’s vaccine in children 6-11.
