MIAMI — Dozens of South Florida pharmacies, community health centers, children’s hospitals and pediatricians received delivery this week of the first COVID-19 vaccines available for children as young as 6 months old — much earlier than anticipated after state officials missed a deadline for preordering the shots.
But pediatricians and public health advocates working to vaccinate newly eligible children under 5 said they are being forced to throw away the majority of the doses they have ordered because Gov. Ron DeSantis will not authorize state programs to administer the vaccines for infants and toddlers, effectively cutting off supply to many family doctors.
Pediatricians say they can no longer turn to their county health department to supply them with smaller amounts of the vaccine, which is what many doctors have been doing to procure the vaccine for older kids and adults, said Dr. Lisa Gwynn, a University of Miami pediatrician and president of the Florida Chapter of American Academy of Pediatrics.
