ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines could start going into the arms of children 12 and older as early as later this week, and local doctors are urging parents to take action. 

"Please do not wait. This vaccine will help keep your child safe and in turn help keep our entire community safe," said Monroe County Public Health Commissioner Dr. Michael Mendoza.

What You Need To Know

  • Rochester area medical professionals expressed that they are ecstatic that the Pfizer vaccine will soon be available to that younger age group

  • There is also a local effort to get vaccines into primary care doctors' offices

  • Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines could start going into the arms of children 12 and older as early as later this week

At the Rochester Academy of Medicine, local medical professionals expressed that they are ecstatic that the Pfizer vaccine will soon be available to that younger age group.

"Children will not be vaccinated without parental consent, period,” said Dr. Stephen Cook, UR Medicine Golisano Children’s Hospital pediatrician. “This is a first step and an important step, but there is still a lot of work to do."

While mass vaccination sites are already in place, there is also a local effort to get vaccines into primary care doctors' offices.

They believe it can be ready by the end of the month.

"Kids can demonstrate a higher propensity for transmitting it to other people and so we have to think about the older adults, and parents and others who are not yet vaccinated,” said Mendoza. “We don't have herd immunity in our community yet. We need to do everything we can to vaccinate those to end this pandemic."

URMC Infectious Disease Dr. Angela Branche also explained why the FDA cut off vaccine eligibility at age 12.

"Things change in terms of how you process vaccines, how well you process vaccines and medications and so forth, how developmentally you are ready to do with these kinds of doses that we are talking about, how developed your immune system is,” Branche explained. “That's sort of that age, that adolescent age as a teenager where they are close to being adults, but not quite."

Olivia Brown, 15, of Irondequoit has already decided to get the vaccine.

"I was super excited because that means that I don't have to worry about getting sick anymore,” Brown said. “I don't have to worry about getting friends and family sick anymore. I could go back to school normally in the fall, stuff like that, so really it means things are going to go back to normal pretty much."

Mendoza believes the vaccine will be available to the new age group as soon as Thursday.