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Vaccine clinic opens at Seattle Children’s

SEATTLE — The first vaccination appointments for children ages 5 to 11 begin at Seattle Children’s Hospital Tuesday.

Several clinics happened over the weekend. A mass vaccination clinic happened in Seattle at an Amazon building and the city also opened a clinic in West Seattle on Oct. 29.

So far, there have been limited appointments, all of which filled up quickly.

In some areas such as Snohomish County late last week, it was difficult to find an appointment at any pharmacy. Online vaccine finders showed few appointments were available.

At Seattle Children’s hospital, the vaccine for children arrived on Friday. It was a similar situation in many places across the country as vaccines started arriving for children within the last few days, prompting parents to head out and get their children vaccinated.

The Biden administration is sending letters to school districts across the country, calling on them to organize vaccine clinics for their newly eligible students.

Currently, there are about 28 million children ages 5 to 11 who are now eligible to be vaccinated. The White House said the federal government has enough of the two-dose vaccine for all.

Pediatric clinical trials are underway for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 6 months to 5 years old.

Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration delayed a decision on the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11, to evaluate the risk of myocarditis or heart inflammation. That review could take until January.