Earlier this week, at a Dallas drive-up vaccine facility, an 8-year-old boy was accidentally administered the COVID-19 vaccine.
According to the New York Post, the boy’s father was registering the entire family for their shot when he inevitably signed the boy up too. The father, who has not been named, saw no issue since he could get an appointment along with a QR code.
“He was under the assumption that, ‘I submit his information and he got an appointment,'” said pediatrician Marcial Oquendo. “And when he got an appointment, he was like, ‘we all got an appointment, so let’s go.'”
It was not until after the father spoke with Oquendo he realized the mistake he had made.
For those who may be unaware, the three vaccines currently available in the United States are for those 18 and older or 16 and older — depending on the maker.
This is of grave concern because there is little to no research on how the vaccine affects younger individuals.
According to Oquendo, there is no “data, especially under the age of 12 to say if it works, is it safe, how much should we use, which kid can get it and which kids can’t.”
“We’re still trying to figure out what to do next,” Oquendo said. “We’re trying to figure out who needs to know what.”
While it may be easy to blame the paramedic, as there is no way one can mistake an 8-year-old for someone who is 16, the boy was one of some 3,800 people to be inoculated that day. The paramedic was simply doing their job.
“They’re in the car, there’s a code, the paramedic did what that paramedic did for thousands of others for that day and went ahead and gave the vaccination, and did not realize it was a child under the age of 18,” said Grand Prairie Fire Department Chief Robert Fite, according to NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins reported that the mistake is a result of “human error.”
“He was put in the suspended, ineligible list. There was human error, and that list was moved over to get the people who were under 50 onto the eligible list. They failed to scrub for people who were under 18,” said Jenkins.
Nonetheless, the facility is taking drastic measures to ensure this never happens again.
“We’ve got more training for our medics, so they know if they see a person who does not appear to be old enough for that vaccine that they understand that we don’t give the vaccine to anyone under the age of 16 or anyone under the age of 18 if it’s Johnson & Johnson or Moderna,” Jenkins said.
