The Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) advisory panel meets Tuesday to discuss COVID-19 vaccinations for children aged 5 to 11, following the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) emergency use authorization of the Pfizer vaccine on Friday. Assuming the CDC panel recommends the vaccine, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky is likely to sign off quickly, allowing vaccinations for elementary-age children to start this week. But vaccination appointments are likely to be hard to come by this week with the program “running at full strength” starting in the second week of November, according to Jeffrey Zients, the White House pandemic response coordinator. So if you’re a parent who is eager to get your child vaccinated as soon as possible, you can look forward to a return of the blood sport of appointment-hunting last spring. (By “blood sport” I mean anxiously clicking refresh on vaccination websites at all hours of the day and night.) Read more