--- title: Schools, Pediatricians Key to Biden's 5-11 COVID-19 Vaccines description: Pediatricians and schools will be central to the White House's plan to vaccinate U.S. kids between 5-11 years old. canonical: https://time.com/6108567/covid-vaccine-kids/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-10-20T13:51:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-14T09:15:48.522Z article:section: Health og:title: Schools and Pediatricians Will Be Key to Biden's Childhood Vaccine Rollout og:description: Shots for kids 5-11 will be approved as soon as early November og:url: https://time.com/6108567/covid-vaccine-kids/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde90673d3197f227/698a1de9b3fce38cec0c86ec/kids-covid-vaccine.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Kids COVID-19 Vaccine og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Schools and Pediatricians Will Be Key to Biden's Childhood Vaccine Rollout twitter:description: Shots for kids 5-11 will be approved as soon as early November twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde90673d3197f227/698a1de9b3fce38cec0c86ec/kids-covid-vaccine.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Schools and Pediatricians Will Be Key to Biden's Childhood Vaccine Rollout > Sponsored content. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=4f518994-1e7e-4e44-97d1-9f2ff91905e1&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Making the COVID-19 Vaccine: A 50,000 step process [Watch (HLS stream): Making the COVID-19 Vaccine: A 50,000 step process](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/XGIqdw9j.m3u8) (7:28)  _Published 2021-04-18. Inside BioNTech's quest to vaccinate the world_ by [Josh Wingrove / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Josh Wingrove / Bloomberg Contributor Oct 20, 2021 1:51 PM UTC by [Josh Wingrove / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Josh Wingrove / Bloomberg Contributor Oct 20, 2021 1:51 PM UTC The White House outlined its COVID-19 plan to vaccinate younger children which would focus on smaller doses administered with smaller needles if the shots are authorized by regulators. “We will be ready to get shots in arms,” President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 response coordinator, Jeff Zients, said Wednesday during a White House briefing on the plan, which includes supporting vaccination by primary care doctors and in pharmacies and schools. The U.S. has ordered enough supply to vaccinate all kids 5 to 11, the White House said in a [statement](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/10/20/fact-sheet-biden-administration-announces-update-on-operational-planning-for-covid-19-vaccinations-for-kids-ages-5-11/) Wednesday. The vaccination campaign for kids would differ from the one targeting adults and children 12 and older in that it will enlist pediatricians to work with parents, rather than utilizing mass inoculation sites. The vials and needles used to administer doses also will be smaller, the White House said. The shots will be available at more than 25,000 doctors’ offices and primary care sites, as well as children’s hospitals and pharmacies. “The administration will work with states and local partners to make vaccination sites available at schools and other trusted community-based sites across the country,” according to the White House statement. The doses, which are one-third the strength of the regular dose given to those 12 and up, will be shipped in smaller configurations more easily stored at a typical pediatrician’s office, the White House said. It will be possible to store them for up to 10 weeks at standard refrigeration temperatures and 6 months at ultra-cold temperatures. The Department of Health and Human Services will also launch an education campaign about the kids’ vaccine. Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE have [submitted](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-07/kids-in-line-for-u-s-covid-vaccine-as-soon-as-week-of-nov-1) data to the Food and Drug Administration ahead of an advisory panel meeting set for Oct. 26 that could help pave the way for kids ages 5 to 11 could get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as the first week in November. Vaccinating kids could could provide a boost both to Biden’s political fortunes and and public-health goals. Reaching children younger than age 12 would be a crucial step toward ending the pandemic, insulating them from the worst risks of COVID and further shrinking the pool of Americans vulnerable to spreading the virus. Public approval of Biden’s handling of the pandemic, and other issues including Afghanistan and his economic agenda, has been falling. Many parents, including the suburban voters Democrats need to keep control of Congress in the 2022 midterm elections, are eagerly anticipating a vaccine for children. It could also help working parents return to their offices and boost the travel sector with more families finally able to be fully inoculated. The White House outlined its Covid-19 plan to vaccinate younger children which would focus on smaller doses administered with smaller needles if the shots are authorized by regulators. “We will be ready to get shots in arms,” President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 response coordinator, Jeff Zients, said Wednesday during a White House briefing on the plan, which stresses the use of supporting school-based vaccine clinics. The U.S. has ordered enough supply to vaccinate all kids 5 to 11, the White House said in a [statement](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/10/20/fact-sheet-biden-administration-announces-update-on-operational-planning-for-covid-19-vaccinations-for-kids-ages-5-11/) Wednesday. The vaccination campaign for kids would differ from the one targeting adults and children 12 and older in that it will enlist pediatricians to work with parents, rather than utilizing mass inoculation sites. The vials and needles used to administer doses also will be smaller, the White House said. The shots will be available at more than 25,000 doctors’ offices and primary care sites, as well as children’s hospitals and pharmacies. “The administration will work with states and local partners to make vaccination sites available at schools and other trusted community-based sites across the country,” according to the White House statement. The doses, which are one-third the strength of the regular dose given to those 12 and up, will be shipped in smaller configurations more easily stored at a typical pediatrician’s office, the White House said. It will be possible to store them for up to 10 weeks at standard refrigeration temperatures and 6 months at ultra-cold temperatures. The Department of Health and Human Services will also launch an education campaign about the kids’ vaccine. Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE have [submitted](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-07/kids-in-line-for-u-s-covid-vaccine-as-soon-as-week-of-nov-1) data to the Food and Drug Administration ahead of an advisory panel meeting set for Oct. 26 that could help pave the way for kids ages 5 to 11 could get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as the first week in November. Vaccinating kids could could provide a boost both to Biden’s political fortunes and and public-health goals. Reaching children younger than age 12 would be a crucial step toward ending the pandemic, insulating them from the worst risks of COVID and further shrinking the pool of Americans vulnerable to spreading the virus. Public approval of Biden’s handling of the pandemic, and other issues including Afghanistan and his economic agenda, has been falling. Many parents, including the suburban voters Democrats need to keep control of Congress in the 2022 midterm elections, are eagerly anticipating a vaccine for children. It could also help working parents return to their offices and boost the travel sector with more families finally able to be fully inoculated. ## Transcript Kind: captions Language: en oh yes yes i'm vaccinated yes Very cool yes yeah yes, I did it was very cool to to know okay I'm gonna be vaccinated with a vaccine that I know really from day one I mean who can tell that they're part of the solution for such a pandemic situation I guess only a few people can say that and I'm really happy to be part of that If you've been vaccinated for COVID-19, chances are that you are benefiting from the science happening here at the German biotech company BioNtech. In December 2020 BioNtech in partnership with Pfizer were the first to earn authorization to distribute their vaccine to the public In March 2021 TIME spent a week watching how BioNtech makes a batch of 8 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine at their new manufacturing plant in Marburg they expect to produce 1 billion doses a year the pace of production has been breakneck from the start So in 2020 I think we worked at every holiday, I can remember Easter Saturday I was standing here pipetting samples to have the results as soon as possible and now 24-hour shifts in this lab are producing vaccines that will be shipped around the world There are approximately 50, 000 steps at the lab it begins with bags of pure mRNA the molecule that tells cells how to make the proteins that launch the immune response and a buffer solution that starts the coding process it emerges in bulk at the other end of the process as a liquid destined for vials most of the machines are named after the engineers that developed the process this one is named after Margaret the first patient in the clinical trials to receive the vaccine but the beating heart of the lab is this machine a container that uses pressurized ethanol to encase the mRNA and special lipid nanoparticles those nanoparticles keep the mRNA protected until it can jumpstart the immune response in the body's cells Speed is essential but inside the lab everyone moves slowly and methodically each of the 50,000 steps is logged by one technician confirmed by a second and only then does it actually happen it's very important that the quality of the product and all the raw materials is perfect here and so no impurities should be present in all raw materials and nothing which we don't want to have in our products one wrong move has the potential to damage the final product if there's any accidental exposure let's say from an ill-timed sneeze the entire batch must be thrown out, all eight million doses that's why everyone wears layers of protection and they even disinfect their gloved hands repeatedly in the lab where we were filming no one had ever told the technicians how many doses were in a batch after that they sprayed another application of disinfectant onto their gloves just to be sure based on our technology and on the antigen we were using no I wasn't I'm very confident in the technology we have until now vaccine development has been a slow process the BioNtech vaccine uses a new technology based on mRNA it is revolutionizing the way vaccines can be produced When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, BioNtech was primarily a cancer vaccine company but by using this new mRNA technology it was able to quickly pivot to a coronavirus vaccine when you look back at any project you've ever done you've always looked back at the start and go wow okay if I'd known that now i could have cut you know a few hurdles out of my way earlier right but you're in a situation where you're doing something especially for us as a smaller company that was unprecedented the second part of the process happens at another factory where vials are filled and packed into boxes for shipment as the cycle comes to an end there's little time to celebrate after all another batch is waiting to be made ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6108567/covid-vaccine-kids/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6108567/covid-vaccine-kids/"},"headline":"Schools and Pediatricians Will Be Key to Biden's Childhood Vaccine Rollout","datePublished":"2021-10-20T13:51:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-14T09:15:48.522Z","description":"Shots for kids 5-11 will be approved as soon as early 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