Kids mistakenly get adult dose of COVID vaccine at Halloween event, Texas dad says
Two children mistakenly received an adult dose of a COVID-19 vaccine at a trunk-or-treat event on Halloween, a Texas father told media outlets.
The City of Garland, located 50 miles southwest of Fort Worth, is now investigating how the 6- and 7-year-old children received the vaccine.
Julian Gonzalez, the father of the 6-year-old, said his son and a neighbor’s 7-year-old son got the shot at a pop-up clinic ran by the city’s health department, according to KTVT. The clinic was held on Halloween at Mount Hebron Missionary Baptist Church.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky approved an advisory committee’s recommendations for the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5-11 on Nov. 2 — two days after the kids in Garland received theirs. Kids across the United States began rolling up their sleeves for the vaccine on Nov. 3, The Associated Press reported.
Gonzalez, who went to the pop-up clinic to get a booster shot, said he was surprised when told the kids were eligible. It wasn’t until the following day when the health department informed the Gonzalez family and the family of the 7-year-old of the error that the kids had received an adult dose of the vaccine days before children were even allowed to get vaccinated, KXAS reported.
“All they kept saying was, ‘The proper channels have been notified,’” Gonzalez told KXAS. “No matter what, no matter what answer we tried to get — ‘How did this happen? How could this happen?’ — the only answer we got is, ‘The proper channels have been notified.’”
The children’s dose is a third of the amount given to teenagers and adults, McClatchy News reported. Officials found the smaller dose offered adequate protection and led to less intense side effects.
The City of Garland confirmed in a statement to McClatchy News two children were administered the vaccine “in error.”
“(Garland Health Department) officials are in communication with the parents of the children involved, who are monitoring the children for side effects,” the city said in its statement. “GHD also has reported the incident to state health officials and are further investigating the circumstances leading up to the error.”
Gonzalez told KXAS his son had a mild fever, headache and low energy after receiving his shot.
The mother of the 7-year-old child said her son is doing “OK” after his shot, according to KTVT.
“I think there needs to be checks and balances. How did it get to this level?” Gonzalez said, KXAS reported. “We may come out OK from this but what if it happens somewhere else and someone is not as lucky?”
This story was originally published November 4, 2021 at 11:52 AM with the headline "Kids mistakenly get adult dose of COVID vaccine at Halloween event, Texas dad says."