The race to get Americans vaccinated seems to be going well. It started with the older population and people with certain jobs like health care workers and nursing facilities workers. Slowly more and more people became eligible to get vaccinated.

The roll out of vaccine eligibility was in order of priority where people with certain medical conditions or with high risk jobs were eligible to get vaccinated first. Then, eligibility finally opened up to anyone 16+. That meant that the rest of us were finally eligible to make an appointment to get vaccinated including many teenagers.

Yet, the 16 year cut off left many teens unvaccinated and their parents hoping that younger teens would soon be able to get vaccinated as well. Teens have been impacted especially hard by COVID-19. Many of them miss going to school and school events like football games and dances. With a vaccine, the hope is that their lives would be able to return to normal in the near future.

On May 10, 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine emergency authorization use for ages 12 to 15. In a press release, acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock, M.D. explained, “Today’s action allows for a younger population to be protected from COVID-19, bringing us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy and to ending the pandemic. Parents and guardians can rest assured that the agency undertook a rigorous and thorough review of all available data, as we have with all of our COVID-19 vaccine emergency use authorizations.”

For some states, the FDA’s emergency use authorization was all they needed to open up the vaccine to 12+, but many states were waiting for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to recommend the Pfizer vaccine for ages 12+.

On May 12, 2021, the CDC released a statement officially recommending the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for ages 12+. The CDC Director wrote, “This official CDC action opens vaccination to approximately 17 million adolescents in the United States and strengthens our nation’s efforts to protect even more people from the effects of COVID-19. Getting adolescents vaccinated means their faster return to social activities and can provide parents and caregivers peace of mind knowing their family is protected.”

Watch the video below to learn more about this important update in the fight against COVID-19.

If you have children between the ages of 12-15 in your family, are you going to take them to get vaccinated?