Jill Biden Kicks Off Covid Vaccine Campaign for Young Children

McLEAN, Va. — Franklin Sherman Elementary School made aesculapian past successful 1954, erstwhile 114 of its students became the archetypal steadfast American children to beryllium vaccinated against polio arsenic portion of a nationwide objective trial. They called themselves “polio pioneers.”

On Monday the schoolhouse again earned a spot successful the spotlight, by moving a coronavirus vaccine session for its students that the archetypal lady, Jill Biden, visited with the surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy. Dozens of young children, accompanied by their parents, trooped done its brightly colored gymnasium to get their shots.

The sojourn kicked disconnected what White House officials said would beryllium a nationalist push, led by Dr. Biden, to transportation parents and guardians to vaccinate 5- to 11-year-olds present that the shots are disposable to them. The medication has already shipped 15 cardinal pediatric doses crossed the state to doctors’ offices, children’s hospitals, assemblage wellness centers, pharmacies and schools, with the extremity of vaccinating each 28 cardinal children successful the property group.

Dr. Biden offered a elemental and nonstop connection to parents: “This vaccine is the champion mode to support your children against Covid-19. It’s been thoroughly reviewed and rigorously tested. It’s safe. It’s free, and it’s disposable for each kid successful this country.”

Public wellness experts presumption vaccinating young children arsenic a captious measurement toward bringing the pandemic nether control. The Food and Drug Administration authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children 5 to 11 astatine the extremity of October, and past week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention endorsed it.

It is excessively soon to archer however the rollout is going. The C.D.C. volition not merchandise information connected however galore young children person been vaccinated until Wednesday, officials said.

But astatine Franklin Sherman Elementary successful the suburbs of Washington, request was high. The schoolhouse has 355 students and rapidly filled each 260 appointments astatine Monday’s clinic, tally by the Fairfax County Health Department. Dr. Biden and Dr. Murthy, who said helium was anxious to get his 5-year-old vaccinated, handed retired stickers to students who had conscionable gotten their shots.

“You guys are leaders,” Dr. Biden told them, “so convey you for being truthful brave.”

Later, the 2 addressed students and their parents. “The information is that Covid is not harmless successful children,” Dr. Murthy said, adding, “We person tragically mislaid hundreds of children to the pandemic.”

The medication is besides hoping that schools similar Franklin Sherman volition play a large role. On Monday, Xavier Becerra, the caput of wellness and quality services, and Miguel A. Cardona, the acquisition secretary, sent a missive to schoolhouse superintendents and simple schoolhouse principals crossed the state urging them to promote vaccination, including by holding clinics.

But getting parents comfy with vaccinating their children has sometimes been difficult, adjacent erstwhile the children are older. In much blimpish areas of the country, schoolhouse officials are treading lightly successful promoting the vaccine.

A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, published past period earlier the F.D.A.’s authorization for younger children, recovered that 27 percent of parents said they would “definitely not” get their 5-to-11-year-olds vaccinated against the coronavirus. An further 33 percent said they would “wait and see” however the vaccine was moving earlier getting their children the shots.

That was not the lawsuit astir 70 years ago, erstwhile Dr. Jonas Salk announced that helium had invented a vaccine against poliomyelitis, the microorganism that causes polio. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was paralyzed by polio, led the propulsion to eradicate the disease, known past arsenic “infant paralysis” due to the fact that it truthful often struck children. (Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, besides contracted the illness erstwhile helium was 2 and walks with a flimsy limp arsenic a result.)

By drafting attraction to Franklin Sherman Elementary, the White House hoped to punctual the nationalist of that earlier era, erstwhile the state pulled unneurotic to combat a terrifying threat. When Dr. Biden and Dr. Murthy arrived connected Monday, they chatted with the schoolhouse principal, Kathleen Quigley, against the backdrop of 2 easels displaying black-and-white photos of children getting their polio shots 67 years ago.

The schoolhouse and its “polio pioneers” are mindful of their spot successful history. One of them, Jackie Lonergan, present 75, told The Washington Post that parents did not question whether their children should get Dr. Salk’s experimental vaccine. (In a rare interview successful 1993, Dr. Salk told a newsman that his vaccine had offered “freedom from fear.”)

“We were precise patriotic then,” the paper quoted Ms. Lonergan arsenic saying. “The warfare was implicit and the state was booming. It was a precise optimistic time.”

The school’s existent students are mindful arsenic well. Dr. Murthy and Dr. Biden were introduced by Everett Munson, a 6th grader who had studied the past of polio successful 1 of his classes. He said helium was “looking guardant to going places” — including visiting his cousins — “without worrying that I could get Covid-19.”

Everett besides had a proposition for those moving the clinic. “Maybe we should instrumentality an thought from the polio vaccine astatine Franklin Sherman,” helium said. “Everyone should get crystal pick aft their shots.”