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U.S. health officials are setting the stage for a national COVID-19 vaccination campaign for younger children, inviting state officials to order doses before the shots are authorized. Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine is currently being given to people as young as 12 in the U.S. In the next three weeks, federal officials plan to discuss making smaller-dose versions available to the nation’s 28 million children between the ages of 5 and 11. (Stobbe, 10/15)

Health officials said they’re eager for all three boosters to be authorized because it will streamline their public outreach and make it easier to talk about who should get the shots. “It complicates things a little bit when not all the vaccines have been authorized,” said Dr. Martin Fenstersheib, the vaccine officer for Santa Clara County. “We had to say, ‘Everybody 65 and older, come and get a booster — but only if you’re Pfizer.’ And people say, ‘What’s going on here?’ Hopefully we can alleviate that confusion and make it across-the-board available, no matter what vaccine you got.” (Allday, 10/16)

There’s no trouble convincing people of the need for COVID-19 vaccines at the South Philadelphia Older Adult Center. “The people who don’t want it are ridiculous,” said Concetta Buonadonna, 94, as she waited for a workout class at the center to begin. What remains challenging, though, is getting seniors information on where to get doses. Health officials said they’re eager for all three boosters to be authorized because it will streamline their public outreach and make it easier to talk about who should get the shots. Approval of Pfizer booster shots for people age 65 and older in late September began another round of frustration for older people who can be less adept at online searches to find doses and make appointments. So the Philadelphia Department of Public Health is staffing senior centers like the one in South Philadelphia to help people find their shots. (Laughlin, 10/16)

KHN: What Will It Take To Boost Vaccinations? The Scene From Kentucky’s Back Roads 

In the end it was the delta variant that drove Rose Mitchell, 89, down the winding mountain road to the Full Gospel Church of Jesus Christ to get the shot. Her pastor, Billy Joe Lewis, had told his congregation that, No, ma’am, a covid vaccine would not leave the “mark of the beast” nor rewrite their genetic codes. Mitchell, who has known the deaths of eight of her 13 children over the years, was done taking chances with the virus stealing up the hollers along Cutshin Creek. “That stuff’s getting so bad, I was afraid to not take it,” she said, sitting in her daughter’s car in the church parking lot. “I said, ‘Well, if all the rest of them are going to take it, I’ll take it too.’” (Varney, 10/18)

For most of the pandemic, Sarah Ostrowski went to her full-time gas station job in Indiana, accepting the risk of being unvaccinated. Many times a day she interacted with customers and even cleaned up the public bathroom with no protection beyond her mask. Ostrowski doesn’t believe Covid-19 is a hoax. She takes it seriously. But she had reasons for not getting the shot. She was concerned about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine causing blood clots, as had been reported in a few recipients. She was hesitant about the mRNA technology used to develop the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. She also worried about potential side effects forcing her to take time off work. (Rodriguez, 10/16)

Although the peak of flu season starts in December and lasts through February, it officially starts in October. This year, doctors recommend not only getting a flu shot this month, but also getting the COVID-19 vaccine. Dr. Leandris Liburd, associate director for minority health and health equity at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, explained the urgency in a conversation with WLRN's Veronica Zaragovia. (Zaragovia, 10/15)