SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — The White House is launching a new "door-to-door" push to get Americans vaccinated, focusing on young people.
Kids ages 12 to 18 years old still have lower vaccination rates than most other age groups in the country: a trend we are also seeing in San Diego.
Parents who have not yet had their kids ages 12 and up vaccinated are being highly encouraged to do so this summer.
The sooner, the better: so that they will have full immunity by the time they return to school in person later this year.
"Millions of Americans are still unvaccinated and unprotected, and because of that their communities are at risk," said President Biden on Tuesday.
A large portion of those eligible who are still not vaccinated are young people.
In San Diego County, while nearly 67% of all eligible San Diegans are fully vaccinated, only 35.3% of San Diegans ages 12 to 17 are, according to the latest numbers released by the county.
As part of its push, the federal government is stepping up efforts to get vaccines to pediatricians and other health care providers who see young people, with the goal of getting those 12 to 18 fully vaccinated before the school year starts.
"They are going to be back inside classrooms next to each other," said Dr. Howard Smart, chair of the Department of Pediatrics of the Sharp-Rees Stealy Medical Group.
He said that every fall, kids catch all sorts of viruses, and COVID will be among them: with potentially more severe consequences.
"They can give it to each other, and they can bring it home and give it to their younger siblings under age 12 who haven't been vaccinated yet," Dr. Smart told News 8.
To make the vaccine more accessible as vaccine "super-stations" shut down county-wide, Sharp Rees-Stealy plans to offer it in their pediatricians' offices as early as next Monday.
"We don't want to miss the opportunity," Dr. Smart added. "If they are in front of us, and they want the vaccine... we want to have it right there for them."
Health officials said that vaccinating teens is more important than ever with the increasing spread of the Delta variant, which they say is up to 60% more transmissible and could cause more serious disease.
"We will probably see more cases, and more cases mean more consequences, so we would like to have as many people immune as possible without catching the virus," Dr. Smart said. "And the only way to do that is to get a vaccine."
For those 12 to 17, keep in mind that only the two-shot Pfizer vaccine has been authorized.
Pfizer has also said that it plans to apply for emergency authorization for kids ages 5 to 11 as early as September.
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