Families flock from across Northern California to this Bay Area city for first kid COVID vaccines

For 8-year-old Ava Penney, a trip down the freeway from her Union City home for a shot in the arm at a church auditorium in San Jose held the promise of something most everyone missed after COVID-19 upended our lives early last year.

And unlike many of us, she barely flinched at the sight of the needle.

“I’m looking forward to everything going back to normal,” the Delaine Eastin Elementary third-grader said at Emmanuel Baptist Church as she sat post-jab beside her 6-year-old sister, Audrey, coloring connect-the-dot pictures for 15 minutes so nurses could ensure everything went fine before sending them on their way.

They were among hundreds of kids and parents who flocked to mass vaccination sites Wednesday in Santa Clara County, one of the first Bay Area places to begin offering the pediatric version of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine a day after federal regulators cleared the shots for emergency use following safety reviews by expert panels.

With many local pharmacies and health care providers still scrambling to secure the vaccines for kids ages 5-11, word spread quickly among parents that Santa Clara County was ready to deliver. Other Bay Area counties are planning to roll out vaccines for kids in the coming days.

Click here to see where and when you can get your kid the COVID vaccine in the Bay Area

Ada and Audrey’s mother, Caitlin Penney, got a text from a friend about Santa Clara County’s quick start the night before and jumped at a chance to book appointments online. By 11 p.m., she’d landed spots for Wednesday’s inaugural day.

She’s spent months fretting over her girls’ exposure to the contagious and deadly virus, like many parents of the 28 million children 5-11 in the U.S. and 3.5 million in California who have been too young to get the shots authorized for adults and teens many months ago.

“There’s a social responsibility to do it,” said Penney, who was vaccinated in March. “We want school to get back to normal. We want to travel to see family, and we want to keep them safe.”

Kate Elsley, of San Carlos, said being able to get her kids vaccinated was like having a birthday celebration. And celebrations were certainly on her mind. Once she landed online appointments for her kids, Finn Washburn, 9, and Piper Washburn, 6, she grabbed them from school for a lunchtime jab before driving them back.

“They didn’t even know this morning,” said Elsley, who’ll be able to bring them back for their second dose in three weeks just before Thanksgiving so they will be fully vaccinated by the winter holidays.

Dr. Jennifer Tong, the associate chief medical officer at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, said parents on Tuesday snatched up a couple thousand appointments “within a couple of hours.” The county has since added more.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday the state was allocating 1.2 million pediatric doses from the federal government with “adequate supply to vaccinate all newly eligible Californians becoming available in the coming weeks” at more than 4,000 locations.

Santa Clara County expected to inoculate 2,000 kids Wednesday at a half-dozen vaccination sites, including 400 at Emmanuel Baptist Church. In the first week, the county, which has about 175,000 kids ages 5-11, expects to vaccinate up to 25,000, Tong said. She said there were no reports of bad reactions to the shots.

The county plans to begin its first vaccinations at schools Thursday, with on-site vaccinations set at 80 school locations. Santa Clara County Health Officer and Public Health Director Dr. Sara Cody encouraged all parents of children ages 5 and older to get their children vaccinated as soon as possible.

“This is an important step in protecting our children and our community, providing relief for families and creating an additional level of protection to maintain in-person learning for our schools,” Cody said.

Michael and Malou Estrella drove the nearly 70 miles from Lathrop in the Central Valley to bring their daughters, Chloe, 10, and Zoe, 5, to the vaccination site in San Jose. They’ve been homeschooling Chloe during the pandemic, and she’s hoping the shot will change that.

“I want to go back to normal school,” Chloe said. “I want to see my friends again.”

Abby Hanson, 11, of San Jose, is in a homeschool group of 20 kids and is also looking forward to more freedom from virus restrictions.

“Every single kid in our homeschool group has been waiting because we can see more of our friends and family if we’re vaccinated,” Abby said. “I was pretty concerned. I don’t want to give it to anybody.”

Though many Bay Area parents welcomed the availability of COVID-19 vaccines for their kids with sighs of relief, the approval hasn’t been without controversy. Many other parents have been hesitant to submit their kids to the jabs, currently authorized for emergency use in kids 5-15 after expedited review.

Critics point to a rare but serious heart inflammation side effect linked to the Pfizer vaccine, the fact that children under 12 are least likely to experience serious illness or die from the virus, and data indicating that as many as 40% already have recovered from being infected with it and have natural immunity.

Expert advisory panels to the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assessed those concerns and concluded that the virus still poses a greater health risk to kids than the vaccine.

Tong said parents with concerns should speak with their child’s doctor if they have questions.

“It’s OK to take some time to review the research,” Tong said.