GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas — The Grand Prairie Fire Department confirms an 8-year-old boy was vaccinated this week by mistake, officials stated Friday morning.
The incident occurred at the COVID-19 vaccine location at the Theatre at Grand Prairie. The site is run by Dallas County.
Dallas County requires people to register online for the COVID vaccine, where the date of birth is required information on the registration form.
In a statement, Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said, "A third party oversees the Dallas County vaccination registration list. An automated sorting process initially identified minors as not yet eligible, and placed them on a list with others not eligible. Once eligibility opened up to include all individuals over age 16, human error at the third party company maintaining the list caused minors to be moved into an eligible group without double-checking for age requirements."
Jenkins said the county's Information Technology department is working with that third-party company to make sure it doesn't happen again.
As of Monday, March 29, everyone ages 16 and older are eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in Texas. However, the coronavirus vaccine has not been approved for anyone younger than 16 at this time.
Dr. Beth Kassanoff-Piper, Dallas County Medical Society President, said there isn't enough data for children yet.
"At this point, we don't have enough information on children to say that they're ready to get it at this dose, so it's just premature for us to be giving it to them," said Kassanoff-Piper.
However, she does feel like the current trials with children are promising. Pfizer said the vaccine is already 100% effective in children between 12 and 15.
"The data looks really fabulous, and I expect that they probably will go for that FDA indication relatively quickly now that this information is available," said Kassanoff-Piper.
Pfizer has also started clinical trials for children under 12.
Moderna also started testing children from six months to 11 years old.
Pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson said Friday it would begin testing its coronavirus vaccine on adolescents ages 12 to 17.
