DENVER — Colorado health care providers received approval from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) to vaccinate children 12 years old and up with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
On Wednesday, May 12, a CDC advisory group voted to recommend the vaccine’s use in kids ages 12 to 15 years old. Previously, the Pfizer vaccine was only administered to people ages 16 and up.
“This is going to be a big part of ending the pandemic in Colorado, and I know parents are extremely eager to get their teenagers vaccinated,” Governor Jared Polis said during a May 11 press conference.
According to CDPHE, the highest proportion of new COVID-19 outbreaks are occurring at schools, childcare facilities, and colleges and universities.
Kids under 18 in Colorado who want to COVID-19 vaccine must have the consent of a parent or guardian, but that guardian does not need to be present for the shot. Again, this is only for the Pfizer vaccine. The Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines have not been cleared for use on children younger than 18 yet.
Colorado’s vaccine provider map shows which vaccines are available at each location. Furthermore, the six state-run Community Vaccination Sites are all stocked with the Pfizer vaccine and most of the locations do not require an appointment.
The CDC’s recommendation followed a clinical trial including 2,260 children ages 12-15 which found the Pfizer vaccine had 100% efficacy in this group.
According to CDPHE, there are nearly 300,000 Coloradans in the 12 to 15 age range.
Rocky Mountain PBS recently spoke with Governor Polis over Zoom about vaccinations for Colorado’s youth population, as well as what is being done to close the vaccine gap in Hispanic/Latino populations.
Hispanic Coloradans make up about 22% of the state’s population, but only 9% of the state’s vaccinated population (it should be noted that according to the latest data from CDPHE, the race/ethnicity of almost 13% of vaccinated people is listed as “unknown”).
Watch our interview with Polis in the video player below.