Two children, ages 6 and 7, were reportedly given adult doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech on accident during a clinic hosted by a local health department at a Halloween event, Texas-based outlet NBCDFW reported Monday.
The two children were given the shots by mistake as their adult family members were given booster shots.
"I'm very angry, I'll be honest,” said Julian Gonzalez, the father of the 6-year-old boy, to NBCDFW. “All I can do is for the moment be level-headed and hope he's OK."
Gonzalez said that one of the employees working the clinic said that they had vaccines available for children and asked if he wanted to get his son vaccinated. After filling out the paperwork, Gonzalez’s son received what they thought was a children’s dose of the vaccine. Their 7-year-old neighbor also got vaccinated.
Then, on Monday, Gonzalez’ wife received a call from a city official saying that the vaccines for the children were a mistake. The dosage their son received was three times stronger than what COVID-19 experts are considering for children.
"All they kept saying was, 'The proper channels have been notified,'" Gonzalez told NBCDFW. “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.'"
Gonzalez’ son reportedly had a mild fever, headaches, low energy, and a sore arm, “not his usual energetic self a 6-year-old would normally be,” he said.
“I think there needs to be checks and balances. How did it get to this level?” Gonzalez said in the interview. "We may come out OK from this but what if it happens somewhere else and someone is not as lucky?"
This is not the first time children have reportedly accidentally been given the COVID-19 vaccine for adults. Early last month, two Indiana children went in for flu shots at a local Walgreens where they were reportedly given the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine. The children were then taken to a pediatric cardiologist where they reportedly showed signs of heart issues.
This week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a statement recommending the pediatric COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.
“COVID-19 vaccines have undergone – and will continue to undergo – the most intensive safety monitoring in U.S. history,” the CDC’s statement reads. “Vaccinating children will help protect them from getting COVID-19 and therefore reducing their risk of severe disease, hospitalizations, or developing long-term COVID-19 complications. Getting your children vaccinated can help protect them against COVID-19, as well as reduce disruptions to in-person learning and activities by helping curb community transmission.”
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