GOVERNOR HOGAN: Good afternoon. Joining me from the Maryland Department of Health are Secretary Dennis Schrader and Deputy Secretary Dr. Jinlene Chan. Along with Dr. Monique Soileau-Burke, the vice president of the Maryland chapter of the American Academy of pediatrics. And Dr. Michael Zollicoffer, a pediatric medicine expert who works in partnership with Sinai hospital in Baltimore.
For months we have been pressing the federal government to provide patients with clear guidance and a clear timeline for vaccinating younger children against COVID-19. Last week, the FDA’s Advisory Panel of Medical Experts voted unanimously to recommend the Pfizer vaccine for 5 to 11-year-olds, and late last night, the CDC officially granted final authorization, making 515,000 Maryland children immediately eligible to get a COVID-19 vaccine. This approval followed a unanimous vote of the CDC’s Advisory Committee of Experts. It is based on data submitted by Pfizer, which shows that its vaccine is safe and 90.7 percent effective against symptomatic COVID-19 in children. As well as thorough and rigorous clinical trials. Both the American Academy of pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians, two of the nation’s preeminent groups representing hundreds of thousands of family doctors and pediatricians, agreed with the CDC’s recommendation to authorize COVID-19 vaccines for children.
Earlier today, Maryland health officials authorized providers all across the state to immediately begin scheduling appointments, holding clinics, and vaccinating 5 to 11-year-olds in Maryland. Our state health team has been working for many weeks in anticipation of federal approval to mobilize detailed operational plans for vaccinating children. Based on requests from providers across the state, Maryland placed an initial order of 180,000 doses, which began arriving directly from Pfizer earlier this week. Some of these doses are already in place and ready to go across the state. However, the White House has said that it will take them a bit more time to get all of those doses distributed. We will be receiving additional allocations in the coming weeks and they have committed to supplying enough capacity for all of our 5 to 11-year-olds.
Through every step of this planning and preparation process, state health officials have been working closely with pediatricians, pharmacies, local health departments, as well as with the Vaccine Equity Task Force. We have also been coordinating with local school systems and strongly encouraging them to hold clinics in their schools. I’m pleased to report that all 24 local school systems have agreed to do so. In addition to schools, we’ve been working together with our pediatric advisory panel on plans enabling pediatricians and family physicians all across the state to be able to provide vaccines directly in their offices. Our pharmacy partners are receiving allocations from the federal government, and they will also begin immediately offering the vaccine for children. To our vaccine distribution operation, the state will be providing additional staffing resources to school systems and local jurisdictions as needed, and we are deploying Vaccine Equity Task Force teams to ensure equitable access for families in under-served communities and in hard to reach areas.
The Maryland GoVAX Call Center, which has already scheduled more than 460,000 vaccination appointments, sent over 1.5 million outbound texts and made more than 11 million proactive outreach calls to eligible Marylanders, is immediately launching a new robust effort to reach the parents of all eligible Maryland children. We will also begin airing a brand-new round of public service announcements on radio and television featuring trusted Maryland pediatricians encouraging vaccination. As with each previous phase of our vaccination campaign, you can find a provider near you and make an appointment for your children by visiting COVID VAX.maryland.gov or by calling 1-855-MD-GOVAX.
Our primary goal with all of these actions is to make sure that parents have all of the information that they need to make the best informed decision for their family because ultimately this decision is up to and should be up to Maryland parents and families. I know that many parents are relieved and they have been looking forward to this day for many months. And they have already decided to move forward immediately to protect their kids to avoid unnecessary outbreaks and disruptive quarantine and to help keep kids in school. I also know that there are some parents who want to do what’s best for their children but who still have concerns or questions that they need answers to. And it’s important that they get all of those questions answered, which is why we’ve asked these pediatric experts to be here with us today. And it’s why we are strongly encouraging parents who do have concerns to talk directly with their pediatricians or their family physicians. It has now been 11 months since we began our massive operation to get shots into arms in an effort to bring this pandemic to an end.
Thanks to the millions of Marylanders who have rolled up their sleeves, Maryland continues to be one of the most vaccinated states in America. We have now administered more than 8.5 million COVID-19 vaccines and over 430,000 booster shots. Nearly 99 percent of Marylanders 65 and older have been vaccinated, and more than 86 percent of Maryland adults 18 and over have been vaccinated. As a result of all these efforts, all of our key health metrics continue to decline across the board. Our COVID-19 positivity rate has dropped by 41 percent in recent weeks. It’s down 9 percent from its peak. Our case rate has declined by 43 percent in recent weeks, and is now down 78 percent from its peak. And hospitalizations in Maryland have dropped 35 percent in recent weeks and they’re down 72 percent from their peak. We’ve gotten to this point by listening to the experts and by following the science, and that is exactly what we will continue to do as we work to get those remaining last 1.5 percent of seniors and the remaining 13.4 percent of adults in our state vaccinated and as we work to get more of our school aged children vaccinated so that together we can continue to be a national leader in both health and economic recovery. With that, I’m going to turn it over to Dr. Jinlene Chan, who is going to provide some additional clinical information regarding the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines for children.
Dr. Chan.
We are in the midst, as the Governor indicated, of seeing a decline in COVID-19 cases, hospitalization, and deaths across the state. We are and have been moving forward very aggressively on administering booster doses to ensure Marylanders maintain their immunity against this disease. And we’re now entering the holiday season with Thanksgiving and the winter holidays and New Year’s coming up. And now, importantly, we can vaccinate 515,000 of our children who are between the ages of 5 to 11 years old to protect them against the disease. They, like all of us, have been at risk of contracting COVID-19 over the last 20 months, and it’s now their turn and our responsibility to be able to ensure that parents have the information they need to get their children vaccinated. Since we began vaccinating Marylanders almost a year ago, we have seen the benefits to those who have been vaccinated, including a decrease in the risks of infection, hospitalization and death. However, over this same time frame, the proportion of COVID-19 cases among the younger aged groups who have not yet been eligible for vaccination has increased, meaning at the beginning of this year, 2020, about 6 percent of all of our COVID-19 cases were under 10 years old. But more recently, in the last few months, about 14 percent of our new cases have been among this age group under 10. But over the course of the pandemic, I also want to emphasize we have seen kids not only get infected, but also be hospitalized. And so we have seen about 700 hospitalizations among children under 12 years of age. Now that 5 to 11-year-olds are eligible, peace of mind for us as parents is certainly the — is certainly one reason to get them vaccinated.
But the more important one is to protect them. Our families, our communities, and Marylanders, from this disease. Vaccinating kids is another important step in our ongoing battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. And this is exactly what more than 85 percent of Marylanders who are 12 and older who have chosen to become vaccinated and why our health metrics are trending in the right direction. So let me talk a little bit about the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine that just got approved between yesterday after the advisory committee met and voted to recommend approval for use of this vaccine. So this vaccine has been approved under Emergency Use Authorization for children already 12 to 15 and what the FDA and CDC have done now is expanded that EUA to include children 5 and up.
Just as a reminder, it is a way to facilitate the use of medical products, including vaccines, during public health emergencies, even as we’re currently undergoing — responding to the current pandemic. Throughout the pandemic, the FDA has maintained that stringent protocols and procedures to review safety and efficacy data for all vaccines, and that has not changed. And in fact, the FDA has awe monk the most stringent procedures and criteria around the world. So it is a safe vaccine, and 97 percent effective at preventing symptomatic infections from COVID-19 awe monk the 5 to 11-year-olds who participated in the clinical studies here in the United States and around the world. Including the delta variant has become more prevalent in summertime. So that’s an important thing to note that some of the other clinical trials may have included — may have been earlier and did not include the delta variant. This vaccine is very similar to the vaccine that is administered now to the 12-year-olds and teenagers and adults. It is still a two-dose regiment that’s based three weeks apart. However, the dosage itself is a smaller amount. It is a dose for — the dose for 5 to 11-year-olds is 10 Mike grams, which is about a third of the 30 microgram dose that is in the vaccine, the Pfizer vaccine for 12 and older. This amount was shown to still produce a very robust immune response while balancing the short-term side effects that the vaccine can produce.
The vaccine itself is also packaged differently to ensure that providers administer the correct Pfizer vaccine dose. The 5 to 11 vaccine comes in a smaller vial and has an orange cap on it while the vials for the 12 and older have a purple cap. So, again, this is to allow providers to make sure not to provide the exact — the correct dose and the correct vaccine. You know, I’m sure that parents have a lot of questions about possible side effects that their children may have if they become vaccinated. And as a 12-year-old and many people across the state have gotten vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine, kids may also experience some side effects, which are normal signs that their body is actually responding to the vaccine itself. The side effects are typically mild. And that was seen in the trials as well. And shorten duration, maybe about 2 to 3 days, and include pain, redness and swelling at the site of injection, as well as tiredness, headache, muscle and joint pain, a mild fever, and chills. These common side effects are expected and are usually able to sub side or go away within two to three days, as I mentioned. Some children may actually not experience any side effects at all other than a mild sore arm. It is also important to note that any side effects are much less severe than actually getting COVID-19 infection and being ill from it.
In addition, as many as half of the children in the United States who have contracted COVID-19 infection may experience ongoing symptoms in the weeks to months after their initial infection on something that leads to what is called long COVID. These can include symptoms like fatigue, headache, trouble concentrating, joint pain, and up to 100 other symptoms that include a lot of other organ systems, including the gastrointestinal tract, nervous system and others. We are learning more about the long COVID symptoms and syndrome in children. But it is something that we are seeing among kids. I would like to also talk about myocarditis and pericarditis because those are among the questions that people may have in particular related to the Pfizer vaccine. The myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle. And pericarditis is an inflammation of the covering around the heart. In both cases, the body’s immune system can cause inflammation in response to an infection or some other trigger, and so we see that commonly in kids, you know, for other reasons. There have been some cases where the heart muscle inflammation happens in vaccinated adolescents and in young adults. And it’s important to note that these two conditions are also associated with COVID-19 disease itself. And in fact, Maryland has seen 158 cases of the Multi-Inflammatory Syndrome in children, or the MIS-C, which is a post-COVID disease syndrome seen in children characterized by severe inflammation of multiple organ systems, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, and gastrointestinal systems. Many of these kids are quite ill and do end up in the hospital because of this post-COVID syndrome. Among the folks who have been vaccinated, and there’s been tens of millions of people who have received vaccines across the United States, the CDC and FDA have confirmed fewer than 900 reports of myocardia or pericarditis, most of which have occurred in adolescent boys and young men after receiving either the Pfizer or the Modern a mRNA COVID vaccine. So while there are occurrences of myocarditis and pericarditis, it is a much smaller risk related to the vaccine than actually getting the infection itself.
So as the governor said, earlier today, we instructed all COVID-19 providers in the state to begin vaccinating 5 to 11-year-olds. We expect to have ample vaccine supply in the state to meet the demands in the days and weeks to come. We are excited that we have now — that we can now vaccinate this age group. And we know that a lot of parents feel relieved that their children can now get a safe and effective COVID vaccine and the protection that it brings. The more we are vaccinated as a population, the more we can cut off the spread of the disease and the development of variants, and the more we can get back to normal activities and the lives that we want all of our children to have. So for all the parents out there, please, look for a vaccine. We’ve already begun vaccinating. Find a vaccine nearest to you. Contact your local health department. Talk to your pediatrician. The vaccine is coming. We look forward to our Thanksgiving meals and the holidays and the wintertime.
So I’d like to now introduce our next speakers, who are among the many community of pediatricians who are caring for children and families and who are prepared to vaccinate children in their own offices. So, first, Dr. Monique Soileau-Burke is a pediatrician at the Pediatric Center in Columbia, Maryland. And she also serves as the clinical instructor at John Hopkins Hospital and is the vice president for the Maryland Chapter of the American Academy of pediatrics. Following will be Dr. Michael Zollicoffer, a pediatrician in Baltimore, who has been in practice for more than 20 years. He’s also the Maryland — a Maryland GoVAX ambassador. So you may have seen him on TV. And he’s affiliated with Sinai Hospital of Baltimore.
Dr. Burke.
Before I get into the body of my talk, I want to say and give condolence to one of my colleagues who also championed for 20-some years the health care of upper city kids, children, and lower socioeconomic, Dr. Eric Johnson who practically had — — tragically had a massive heart attack three months ago and passed. I want to give condolences to his family and his patients. I also want to say Eric sends a message from upstairs to all of us. He heard about the 5- to 11-year-old vaccine. And he said we have hope today. That’s what we have today. We have hope. The pandemic has killed 745,000 people. Not many children, but too many. We have hope today. Nearly 2 million children 5 to 11 have been infected. We have hope today. 8,300 children 5 to 11 have been hospitalized. 2,300 children have been infected with a multi-system inflammatory syndrome with 94 dying. I have three in my practice. Gladly, none of them have passed. But they want to send a message to everybody. We don’t want this. You don’t want this. So, please, get immunized. We have hope today. A patient who spent days in a coma and was inches from losing her life. Her family immunized, but she could not because she was too young. That changes today. She can now be safe. We have hope today. When she was discharged from that hospital, she said, mommy, I don’t want to get sick again. I don’t want to get sick again. And now she has a chance and other children also so that will never happen.
Parents, you have a chance to save your children. The decision is yours! You don’t gotta get the shot. But I’m pleading with you. I’m pleading with you to do so. She said, mommy, I don’t want to get sick again. I don’t want to get sick again. So, parents, let’s save our children. There are 28 million children from 5 to 11 that are now open for vaccination. Let’s get immunized. Many of the children in inner cities and areas of schools, — after school programs — let’s give hope again. The shot is 91 percent effective. The shot is a third of the dose that we give to adults. It’s a two-shot regiment, like all. And it is a very safe shot with minimal side effects. This is a good shot. This is good shot. We have hope today. So let’s be patient, though. This isn’t going to happen overnight. Let’s take our time. Let’s not rush out. We know it’s going to be difficult. You talk about 5-year-olds getting a shot. There’s going to be screaming and hollering. Pharmacies are going to do something they’ve never done before. Taking care of a 5-year-old. We gotta get ready. And guess what? They all have hope today.
So listen to me. We have a safe shot. We have an effective shot. We have a dreaded disease. We have needless deaths. When you put that all together, and for the 5-year-olds, we now have that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The leprechauns that we keep away from the pot of gold because this is what it is saying. Yesterday you were defenseless. Today you have a weapon, a weapon that gets you closer to herd immunity, the fastest we get to herd immunity saves the most — herd immunity saves the most lives. That’s my PSA. And it will help us navigate the pandemic and discontinue the needless deaths. We have hope today, people. We have hope today. I want to thank you all, the Governor, the secretary of health. I want to thank all of you, the parents and everybody of Maryland for letting me have a chance to speak to you about something that I’m forever excited about, the health of our children and the betterment of a community and nation. Have a great day. And let’s get out here now and go to work to safe our children. Thank you.
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Wow. First of all, I want to just thank all of our doctors for being here today. I’m not sure I should ever do another press conference again.
[ Laughter ]
I want to thank Dr. Z for taking us to church. I felt like saying amen! Thank you for making it hard for me to follow you. We’re going to open the floor to any of our panelists here for any questions that anybody has. I’m sure there are a lot of them. We’ll stick to on-topic questions before I say some other things that you want to talk about. But let’s see if anybody has any questions. Any of the doctors or the secretary. We’ll come right back to you.
[Question off mic]
GOVERNOR HOGAN: And this is still a work in progress. We know we’re going to get to 181,000. We don’t have visibility yet on the pharmacy doses. But we’re working on getting that data as soon as we can. And the first 63,000 have arrived or are in transit. And so we’ve already received 23,000 doses in the state, with the others in transit. As you heard, Dr. Burke, we’re already starting to get shots out. So we’re going to be monitoring the system that the doses are communicated preallocation. And as soon as we know, we can let you know.
[Question off mic]
SPEAKER: Yes. That’s not included in the 181,000. We’re still trying to get visibility on that number.
I’ll just add to that, that’s the way it’s been throughout the process with the federal pharmacy program. They went directly to that. In fact, all the doses come from the federal government. We just put in the request. The pharmacies are just — (Indiscernible).
[Question off mic] gag maybe I’ll let either —
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Maybe I’ll let you come up and talk about that. Obviously we want to be as expedition as possible. Also want to make sure people are confident and comfortable. We don’t think it’s going to happen overnight. As Dr. Chan mentioned, that’s going to take a while but we’re going to stick to it until we get everybody that wants a shot gets one.
SPEAKER: Our models are based on what we saw for the 12 to 15-year-olds. We’re expecting a third of 515 is about 180,000. So that first round of doses will be coming in. Three weeks later, we’ll start doing the second shots. Our expectation is that about a third of them will come in the first three or four weeks, we’ll get that surge. And then our experience has been a flattening and smaller numbers of shots week over week. You know, that’s what our bot model says. That could be different. But that’s what we’re thinking at the moment. So this will take many, many weeks to get because we’ve got to reach people. That’s one of the reasons we’re encouraging the schools to hold clinics. And if that’s effective and we get parents’ consent, that could change the curve. But we’re waiting also to hear, as the other question was how much additional allocation we are going to get week over week.
[Question off mic]
SPEAKER: Great question. Because we are expecting the doses in the 180 to be distributed in terms of demand in that first three weeks, the guidance we’re giving to pediatricians in particular is that they have to manage that first and second dose distribution and we are giving many, many doses to local health departments to manage. So we’re going to allow the providers to self-manage and they understand that three weeks later, they need these doses. That’s one of the reasons why we’ve got to carefully track when the next allocations are going to come. We’ve done some modeling, and it suggests that it will be tight. But we believe that based on uptick we expect to get, that we will have enough doses for second doses come week three, four, five.
[Question off mic]
SPEAKER: No. And quite frankly, some of them may decide to do that. It’s really their call. But we’re tracking the allocations very carefully. And if we — we’re expecting another 50,000 doses per week. We haven’t — and we’ve been assured those will come. But, you know, we’re still tracking the allocation process. If we get that, we should be in good shape based on our expectations from the models.
[Question off mic]
SPEAKER: Yes. Yes. And with Dr. Chan’s help, and I’ll ask her to add any commentary that I missed, she’s been working very closely with the local health departments, the local health officers, and the school system superintendents. There’s been several calls. We have asked superintendents in the state to assure that they would hold clinics in the schools because we believe that’s the best way to get equitable distribution, by reaching the children in the schools. Of course there’s a consent process and all of that. But that is our strategy at the moment. Dr. Chan, did you want to add anything to that?
[Question off mic]
[Question off mic]
[Question off mic]
[Question off mic]
I don’t think at this point they’ve come out with a statement about whether they think shape should be required for school. I think we’ll need to take a look at data and make decisions as we progress. I will say that we’re pediatricians. We believe in vaccinations. Vaccinations save lives. We’re very good at giving vaccinations. We give thousands of them a year. So I think that, you know, as your pediatrician’s office is certainly a good place to get information about vaccines and talk to someone who is very comfortable with vaccines dispensing and with the side effects and things like that. So I think it’s really at this point an important one-on-one conversation to have with your pediatrician.
Anyone else?
[Question off mic]
[ off mic ]
Look. I reached out to congratulate the — in Virginia last night. Looking forward to hopefully sitting down with them. I’m very much looking forward to working together with them in the region. I think they sent a message all the statewide elected offices in Virginia. (Indiscernible) terrific guy who no one expected to win.
[ Indiscernible ]
Reminds me of Larry Hogan. He has no money. No one expected him to win. And he came out of nowhere. It happens. We haven’t gotten a final answer yet. But there’s a chance we may also be welcoming another younger — I think it was great. I think it sends two messages basically. One, that people that actually focus on talking about issues and solutions get elected by the voters. And two, perhaps President Biden who ran and — going to bring it back together overread the mandate on moving too far to the left. I think that was rejected by the voters all across the country.
[Question off mic]
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Say that again.
[Question off mic]
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Well, you know, when they first started talking about it back in May of last year, I was the first one on national television strongly disagreeing with that. The last week or so after we heard former city councilman talking about eliminating the police department, we talked about more funding for the police. Everywhere across the country, people that — mayor of New York is a former cop who said it’s crazy, can’t take money away from the police.
[ Indiscernible ]
I just saw national polling, 75 percent of the people in America agree with mean want more funding for police. Not less.
[Question off mic]
GOVERNOR HOGAN: It’s a frustrating situation. Obviously the voters overwhelmingly voted. Legislator crafted legislation which they now seem to be — they pass a law that they seem to be ignoring. The executive branch of government approved the — that’s already been vetted. Already doing gambling across the state many weeks ago —
[ Indiscernible ]
It appears as if the legislature and — to delay things as long as possible until they can do all of the other — the end result is opposite of what the law does. The law says have two sets of processes. If in fact they don’t act immediately to approve those and if the legislature has their way in violating the law, then it’s going to be at least a — and potentially it could kill the entire deal. So I didn’t see the details of the secret closed door meeting they had today. You don’t get to see what they do. But it’s a problem. And I’m sure they’re all going to be —
[ Indiscernible ]
Thank you.
For months we have been pressing the federal government to provide patients with clear guidance and a clear timeline for vaccinating younger children against COVID-19. Last week, the FDA’s Advisory Panel of Medical Experts voted unanimously to recommend the Pfizer vaccine for 5 to 11-year-olds, and late last night, the CDC officially granted final authorization, making 515,000 Maryland children immediately eligible to get a COVID-19 vaccine. This approval followed a unanimous vote of the CDC’s Advisory Committee of Experts. It is based on data submitted by Pfizer, which shows that its vaccine is safe and 90.7 percent effective against symptomatic COVID-19 in children. As well as thorough and rigorous clinical trials. Both the American Academy of pediatrics and the American Academy of Family Physicians, two of the nation’s preeminent groups representing hundreds of thousands of family doctors and pediatricians, agreed with the CDC’s recommendation to authorize COVID-19 vaccines for children.
Earlier today, Maryland health officials authorized providers all across the state to immediately begin scheduling appointments, holding clinics, and vaccinating 5 to 11-year-olds in Maryland. Our state health team has been working for many weeks in anticipation of federal approval to mobilize detailed operational plans for vaccinating children. Based on requests from providers across the state, Maryland placed an initial order of 180,000 doses, which began arriving directly from Pfizer earlier this week. Some of these doses are already in place and ready to go across the state. However, the White House has said that it will take them a bit more time to get all of those doses distributed. We will be receiving additional allocations in the coming weeks and they have committed to supplying enough capacity for all of our 5 to 11-year-olds.
Through every step of this planning and preparation process, state health officials have been working closely with pediatricians, pharmacies, local health departments, as well as with the Vaccine Equity Task Force. We have also been coordinating with local school systems and strongly encouraging them to hold clinics in their schools. I’m pleased to report that all 24 local school systems have agreed to do so. In addition to schools, we’ve been working together with our pediatric advisory panel on plans enabling pediatricians and family physicians all across the state to be able to provide vaccines directly in their offices. Our pharmacy partners are receiving allocations from the federal government, and they will also begin immediately offering the vaccine for children. To our vaccine distribution operation, the state will be providing additional staffing resources to school systems and local jurisdictions as needed, and we are deploying Vaccine Equity Task Force teams to ensure equitable access for families in under-served communities and in hard to reach areas.
The Maryland GoVAX Call Center, which has already scheduled more than 460,000 vaccination appointments, sent over 1.5 million outbound texts and made more than 11 million proactive outreach calls to eligible Marylanders, is immediately launching a new robust effort to reach the parents of all eligible Maryland children. We will also begin airing a brand-new round of public service announcements on radio and television featuring trusted Maryland pediatricians encouraging vaccination. As with each previous phase of our vaccination campaign, you can find a provider near you and make an appointment for your children by visiting COVID VAX.maryland.gov or by calling 1-855-MD-GOVAX.
Our primary goal with all of these actions is to make sure that parents have all of the information that they need to make the best informed decision for their family because ultimately this decision is up to and should be up to Maryland parents and families. I know that many parents are relieved and they have been looking forward to this day for many months. And they have already decided to move forward immediately to protect their kids to avoid unnecessary outbreaks and disruptive quarantine and to help keep kids in school. I also know that there are some parents who want to do what’s best for their children but who still have concerns or questions that they need answers to. And it’s important that they get all of those questions answered, which is why we’ve asked these pediatric experts to be here with us today. And it’s why we are strongly encouraging parents who do have concerns to talk directly with their pediatricians or their family physicians. It has now been 11 months since we began our massive operation to get shots into arms in an effort to bring this pandemic to an end.
Thanks to the millions of Marylanders who have rolled up their sleeves, Maryland continues to be one of the most vaccinated states in America. We have now administered more than 8.5 million COVID-19 vaccines and over 430,000 booster shots. Nearly 99 percent of Marylanders 65 and older have been vaccinated, and more than 86 percent of Maryland adults 18 and over have been vaccinated. As a result of all these efforts, all of our key health metrics continue to decline across the board. Our COVID-19 positivity rate has dropped by 41 percent in recent weeks. It’s down 9 percent from its peak. Our case rate has declined by 43 percent in recent weeks, and is now down 78 percent from its peak. And hospitalizations in Maryland have dropped 35 percent in recent weeks and they’re down 72 percent from their peak. We’ve gotten to this point by listening to the experts and by following the science, and that is exactly what we will continue to do as we work to get those remaining last 1.5 percent of seniors and the remaining 13.4 percent of adults in our state vaccinated and as we work to get more of our school aged children vaccinated so that together we can continue to be a national leader in both health and economic recovery. With that, I’m going to turn it over to Dr. Jinlene Chan, who is going to provide some additional clinical information regarding the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines for children.
Dr. Chan.
- CHAN: Thank you, Governor. And good afternoon. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, I have spoken about COVID-19 vaccines, testing, and more. As the Deputy Secretary for the Maryland Department of Health, as a physician, and as a mother. I am here today again in all three of those roles, but most importantly in my role as a mother who has children between the ages of 5 and 11 who now are eligible to get vaccinated against COVID-19 disease. Families, including my own and my wonderful husband, across the state and country have been challenged throughout the pandemic to be able to keep their children safe while making sure that they can attend school, participate in activities, and just be kids who hang out with their friends. We are at a cross roads in this pandemic where a number of positive points are converging.
We are in the midst, as the Governor indicated, of seeing a decline in COVID-19 cases, hospitalization, and deaths across the state. We are and have been moving forward very aggressively on administering booster doses to ensure Marylanders maintain their immunity against this disease. And we’re now entering the holiday season with Thanksgiving and the winter holidays and New Year’s coming up. And now, importantly, we can vaccinate 515,000 of our children who are between the ages of 5 to 11 years old to protect them against the disease. They, like all of us, have been at risk of contracting COVID-19 over the last 20 months, and it’s now their turn and our responsibility to be able to ensure that parents have the information they need to get their children vaccinated. Since we began vaccinating Marylanders almost a year ago, we have seen the benefits to those who have been vaccinated, including a decrease in the risks of infection, hospitalization and death. However, over this same time frame, the proportion of COVID-19 cases among the younger aged groups who have not yet been eligible for vaccination has increased, meaning at the beginning of this year, 2020, about 6 percent of all of our COVID-19 cases were under 10 years old. But more recently, in the last few months, about 14 percent of our new cases have been among this age group under 10. But over the course of the pandemic, I also want to emphasize we have seen kids not only get infected, but also be hospitalized. And so we have seen about 700 hospitalizations among children under 12 years of age. Now that 5 to 11-year-olds are eligible, peace of mind for us as parents is certainly the — is certainly one reason to get them vaccinated.
But the more important one is to protect them. Our families, our communities, and Marylanders, from this disease. Vaccinating kids is another important step in our ongoing battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. And this is exactly what more than 85 percent of Marylanders who are 12 and older who have chosen to become vaccinated and why our health metrics are trending in the right direction. So let me talk a little bit about the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine that just got approved between yesterday after the advisory committee met and voted to recommend approval for use of this vaccine. So this vaccine has been approved under Emergency Use Authorization for children already 12 to 15 and what the FDA and CDC have done now is expanded that EUA to include children 5 and up.
Just as a reminder, it is a way to facilitate the use of medical products, including vaccines, during public health emergencies, even as we’re currently undergoing — responding to the current pandemic. Throughout the pandemic, the FDA has maintained that stringent protocols and procedures to review safety and efficacy data for all vaccines, and that has not changed. And in fact, the FDA has awe monk the most stringent procedures and criteria around the world. So it is a safe vaccine, and 97 percent effective at preventing symptomatic infections from COVID-19 awe monk the 5 to 11-year-olds who participated in the clinical studies here in the United States and around the world. Including the delta variant has become more prevalent in summertime. So that’s an important thing to note that some of the other clinical trials may have included — may have been earlier and did not include the delta variant. This vaccine is very similar to the vaccine that is administered now to the 12-year-olds and teenagers and adults. It is still a two-dose regiment that’s based three weeks apart. However, the dosage itself is a smaller amount. It is a dose for — the dose for 5 to 11-year-olds is 10 Mike grams, which is about a third of the 30 microgram dose that is in the vaccine, the Pfizer vaccine for 12 and older. This amount was shown to still produce a very robust immune response while balancing the short-term side effects that the vaccine can produce.
The vaccine itself is also packaged differently to ensure that providers administer the correct Pfizer vaccine dose. The 5 to 11 vaccine comes in a smaller vial and has an orange cap on it while the vials for the 12 and older have a purple cap. So, again, this is to allow providers to make sure not to provide the exact — the correct dose and the correct vaccine. You know, I’m sure that parents have a lot of questions about possible side effects that their children may have if they become vaccinated. And as a 12-year-old and many people across the state have gotten vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine, kids may also experience some side effects, which are normal signs that their body is actually responding to the vaccine itself. The side effects are typically mild. And that was seen in the trials as well. And shorten duration, maybe about 2 to 3 days, and include pain, redness and swelling at the site of injection, as well as tiredness, headache, muscle and joint pain, a mild fever, and chills. These common side effects are expected and are usually able to sub side or go away within two to three days, as I mentioned. Some children may actually not experience any side effects at all other than a mild sore arm. It is also important to note that any side effects are much less severe than actually getting COVID-19 infection and being ill from it.
In addition, as many as half of the children in the United States who have contracted COVID-19 infection may experience ongoing symptoms in the weeks to months after their initial infection on something that leads to what is called long COVID. These can include symptoms like fatigue, headache, trouble concentrating, joint pain, and up to 100 other symptoms that include a lot of other organ systems, including the gastrointestinal tract, nervous system and others. We are learning more about the long COVID symptoms and syndrome in children. But it is something that we are seeing among kids. I would like to also talk about myocarditis and pericarditis because those are among the questions that people may have in particular related to the Pfizer vaccine. The myocarditis is an inflammation of the heart muscle. And pericarditis is an inflammation of the covering around the heart. In both cases, the body’s immune system can cause inflammation in response to an infection or some other trigger, and so we see that commonly in kids, you know, for other reasons. There have been some cases where the heart muscle inflammation happens in vaccinated adolescents and in young adults. And it’s important to note that these two conditions are also associated with COVID-19 disease itself. And in fact, Maryland has seen 158 cases of the Multi-Inflammatory Syndrome in children, or the MIS-C, which is a post-COVID disease syndrome seen in children characterized by severe inflammation of multiple organ systems, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, and gastrointestinal systems. Many of these kids are quite ill and do end up in the hospital because of this post-COVID syndrome. Among the folks who have been vaccinated, and there’s been tens of millions of people who have received vaccines across the United States, the CDC and FDA have confirmed fewer than 900 reports of myocardia or pericarditis, most of which have occurred in adolescent boys and young men after receiving either the Pfizer or the Modern a mRNA COVID vaccine. So while there are occurrences of myocarditis and pericarditis, it is a much smaller risk related to the vaccine than actually getting the infection itself.
So as the governor said, earlier today, we instructed all COVID-19 providers in the state to begin vaccinating 5 to 11-year-olds. We expect to have ample vaccine supply in the state to meet the demands in the days and weeks to come. We are excited that we have now — that we can now vaccinate this age group. And we know that a lot of parents feel relieved that their children can now get a safe and effective COVID vaccine and the protection that it brings. The more we are vaccinated as a population, the more we can cut off the spread of the disease and the development of variants, and the more we can get back to normal activities and the lives that we want all of our children to have. So for all the parents out there, please, look for a vaccine. We’ve already begun vaccinating. Find a vaccine nearest to you. Contact your local health department. Talk to your pediatrician. The vaccine is coming. We look forward to our Thanksgiving meals and the holidays and the wintertime.
So I’d like to now introduce our next speakers, who are among the many community of pediatricians who are caring for children and families and who are prepared to vaccinate children in their own offices. So, first, Dr. Monique Soileau-Burke is a pediatrician at the Pediatric Center in Columbia, Maryland. And she also serves as the clinical instructor at John Hopkins Hospital and is the vice president for the Maryland Chapter of the American Academy of pediatrics. Following will be Dr. Michael Zollicoffer, a pediatrician in Baltimore, who has been in practice for more than 20 years. He’s also the Maryland — a Maryland GoVAX ambassador. So you may have seen him on TV. And he’s affiliated with Sinai Hospital of Baltimore.
Dr. Burke.
- SOILEAU-BURKE: Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. On behalf of the 1100 members of the Maryland Chapter of the American Academy of pediatrics, I’d like to thank Governor Hogan for inviting us to join you today to celebrate, and I do mean celebrate the approval of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for 5- to 11-year-old children. I also want to take a moment to thank the pediatric healthcare providers who have dedicated their lives to take care of these children and dedicate ourselves to the well-being of our youngest citizens. I’m also really proud to be part of that team. This week, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I read in the library of my first grade classroom. It is called the Red Letter Day. It was about a little boy who had a really exciting event coming up and he put it on his calendar and wrote in all big red letters. Well, today is the Red Letter Day, the day that parents and pediatricians have been waiting for for a really long time. I often tell people that I have the best job in the world. I love my job! I have one biological child and hundreds of other children, all my patients. I love them all like a parent. And I want what’s best for them. Over the last 20 months, I have watched them suffer in ways that I never imagined. Especially a patient of mine admitted to the ICU with COVID-19 pneumonia. Another very healthy 14-year-old patient who I’ve been taking care of since she was born, now suffers from long COVID syndrome. Almost a year after her infection, she can’t walk up the stairs at her high school. She can’t play any sports. She doesn’t have the energy to hang out with her friends. She’s no longer independent. And she’s just not normal. She can’t have a normal life. Even our patients who have escaped infection haven’t escaped the suffering. Developmental delays, social anxiety, depression, and the loss of part of their childhood. They’ve missed field trips and sleepovers and family gatherings, and today we have the opportunity to give it all back to them. As a pediatrician and a mom, I understand that parents and guardians, we want to do the right thing for our children. We would gladly sacrifice ourselves for them in an instant. Vaccinating our children is the right thing to do. It’s safe. It’s effective. I have a 13-year-old daughter. She was vaccinated the first day that the vaccine was available for her age group. And as I tell my patients, that is the best recommendation I can offer. I would never ask anything of any child that I wouldn’t do for my own. Today is a day to celebrate, a day to give thanks a day to give our children their lives back. I do want to give a shout-out. We gave our first two vaccines in our office just before I left to come today. So I promised the 5 and 8-year-old that were the first people that I would give Piper and Matthew a shout out for getting their first shot today. So congratulations! Again, thank you for having me here today. And I’m excited about vaccinating the children of Maryland.
- ZOLLICOFFER: Good afternoon. Good afternoon to the Governor and to Dr. Chan and the media. My name is Dr. Michael Zollicoffer. They call me Dr. Z. You don’t want to say Zollicoffer too long. I’m still having problems and I’ve been doing it for years. I have been in practice for over 35 years. And I followed my father, who died at the young age of 45 of colon cancer, but who also was in pediatrics and served this community. I learned as a young child doing house calls and the project in the inner city. We care — he and I both care about the city and the state. We care about our children. And I cannot emphasize that more.
Before I get into the body of my talk, I want to say and give condolence to one of my colleagues who also championed for 20-some years the health care of upper city kids, children, and lower socioeconomic, Dr. Eric Johnson who practically had — — tragically had a massive heart attack three months ago and passed. I want to give condolences to his family and his patients. I also want to say Eric sends a message from upstairs to all of us. He heard about the 5- to 11-year-old vaccine. And he said we have hope today. That’s what we have today. We have hope. The pandemic has killed 745,000 people. Not many children, but too many. We have hope today. Nearly 2 million children 5 to 11 have been infected. We have hope today. 8,300 children 5 to 11 have been hospitalized. 2,300 children have been infected with a multi-system inflammatory syndrome with 94 dying. I have three in my practice. Gladly, none of them have passed. But they want to send a message to everybody. We don’t want this. You don’t want this. So, please, get immunized. We have hope today. A patient who spent days in a coma and was inches from losing her life. Her family immunized, but she could not because she was too young. That changes today. She can now be safe. We have hope today. When she was discharged from that hospital, she said, mommy, I don’t want to get sick again. I don’t want to get sick again. And now she has a chance and other children also so that will never happen.
Parents, you have a chance to save your children. The decision is yours! You don’t gotta get the shot. But I’m pleading with you. I’m pleading with you to do so. She said, mommy, I don’t want to get sick again. I don’t want to get sick again. So, parents, let’s save our children. There are 28 million children from 5 to 11 that are now open for vaccination. Let’s get immunized. Many of the children in inner cities and areas of schools, — after school programs — let’s give hope again. The shot is 91 percent effective. The shot is a third of the dose that we give to adults. It’s a two-shot regiment, like all. And it is a very safe shot with minimal side effects. This is a good shot. This is good shot. We have hope today. So let’s be patient, though. This isn’t going to happen overnight. Let’s take our time. Let’s not rush out. We know it’s going to be difficult. You talk about 5-year-olds getting a shot. There’s going to be screaming and hollering. Pharmacies are going to do something they’ve never done before. Taking care of a 5-year-old. We gotta get ready. And guess what? They all have hope today.
So listen to me. We have a safe shot. We have an effective shot. We have a dreaded disease. We have needless deaths. When you put that all together, and for the 5-year-olds, we now have that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The leprechauns that we keep away from the pot of gold because this is what it is saying. Yesterday you were defenseless. Today you have a weapon, a weapon that gets you closer to herd immunity, the fastest we get to herd immunity saves the most — herd immunity saves the most lives. That’s my PSA. And it will help us navigate the pandemic and discontinue the needless deaths. We have hope today, people. We have hope today. I want to thank you all, the Governor, the secretary of health. I want to thank all of you, the parents and everybody of Maryland for letting me have a chance to speak to you about something that I’m forever excited about, the health of our children and the betterment of a community and nation. Have a great day. And let’s get out here now and go to work to safe our children. Thank you.
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Wow. First of all, I want to just thank all of our doctors for being here today. I’m not sure I should ever do another press conference again.
[ Laughter ]
I want to thank Dr. Z for taking us to church. I felt like saying amen! Thank you for making it hard for me to follow you. We’re going to open the floor to any of our panelists here for any questions that anybody has. I’m sure there are a lot of them. We’ll stick to on-topic questions before I say some other things that you want to talk about. But let’s see if anybody has any questions. Any of the doctors or the secretary. We’ll come right back to you.
[Question off mic]
GOVERNOR HOGAN: And this is still a work in progress. We know we’re going to get to 181,000. We don’t have visibility yet on the pharmacy doses. But we’re working on getting that data as soon as we can. And the first 63,000 have arrived or are in transit. And so we’ve already received 23,000 doses in the state, with the others in transit. As you heard, Dr. Burke, we’re already starting to get shots out. So we’re going to be monitoring the system that the doses are communicated preallocation. And as soon as we know, we can let you know.
[Question off mic]
SPEAKER: Yes. That’s not included in the 181,000. We’re still trying to get visibility on that number.
I’ll just add to that, that’s the way it’s been throughout the process with the federal pharmacy program. They went directly to that. In fact, all the doses come from the federal government. We just put in the request. The pharmacies are just — (Indiscernible).
[Question off mic] gag maybe I’ll let either —
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Maybe I’ll let you come up and talk about that. Obviously we want to be as expedition as possible. Also want to make sure people are confident and comfortable. We don’t think it’s going to happen overnight. As Dr. Chan mentioned, that’s going to take a while but we’re going to stick to it until we get everybody that wants a shot gets one.
SPEAKER: Our models are based on what we saw for the 12 to 15-year-olds. We’re expecting a third of 515 is about 180,000. So that first round of doses will be coming in. Three weeks later, we’ll start doing the second shots. Our expectation is that about a third of them will come in the first three or four weeks, we’ll get that surge. And then our experience has been a flattening and smaller numbers of shots week over week. You know, that’s what our bot model says. That could be different. But that’s what we’re thinking at the moment. So this will take many, many weeks to get because we’ve got to reach people. That’s one of the reasons we’re encouraging the schools to hold clinics. And if that’s effective and we get parents’ consent, that could change the curve. But we’re waiting also to hear, as the other question was how much additional allocation we are going to get week over week.
[Question off mic]
SPEAKER: Great question. Because we are expecting the doses in the 180 to be distributed in terms of demand in that first three weeks, the guidance we’re giving to pediatricians in particular is that they have to manage that first and second dose distribution and we are giving many, many doses to local health departments to manage. So we’re going to allow the providers to self-manage and they understand that three weeks later, they need these doses. That’s one of the reasons why we’ve got to carefully track when the next allocations are going to come. We’ve done some modeling, and it suggests that it will be tight. But we believe that based on uptick we expect to get, that we will have enough doses for second doses come week three, four, five.
[Question off mic]
SPEAKER: No. And quite frankly, some of them may decide to do that. It’s really their call. But we’re tracking the allocations very carefully. And if we — we’re expecting another 50,000 doses per week. We haven’t — and we’ve been assured those will come. But, you know, we’re still tracking the allocation process. If we get that, we should be in good shape based on our expectations from the models.
[Question off mic]
SPEAKER: Yes. Yes. And with Dr. Chan’s help, and I’ll ask her to add any commentary that I missed, she’s been working very closely with the local health departments, the local health officers, and the school system superintendents. There’s been several calls. We have asked superintendents in the state to assure that they would hold clinics in the schools because we believe that’s the best way to get equitable distribution, by reaching the children in the schools. Of course there’s a consent process and all of that. But that is our strategy at the moment. Dr. Chan, did you want to add anything to that?
- CHAN: No. I think — thank you, secretary. I would just add that those clinics are being planned as we speak, and, you know, will be starting to take place even next week and then the weeks to come. And local health departments are also planning mobile clinics to get into communities that perhaps have not had access to vaccines historically. Our vaccine Eck it task force that has been — Vaccine Equity Task Force that has been stood up since February and working really hard around the state to get vaccines into some of these hard to reach populations and into communities is also standing by ready to go. And so we have a number of tools in our tool belt to really get in to communities and to work with partners, community partners, schools, and others to get vaccines out.
[Question off mic]
- CHAN: So I know that all school districts are working to establish school-based vaccines. Both the secretary and the governor have indicated. In terms of the number of clinics, they will probably be adding clinics as we get vaccine because, you know, right now we only have visibility on that 181,000 that we’ve been talking about. So those have been pre-ordered already and are just now coming into the state this week. And so we are going to start by using those. As we get more information about future weeks’ allocation, I anticipate that other clinics will be established.
[Question off mic]
- CHAN: You know, I think that’s exactly speaking to what the secretary just alluded to. When we looked at the uptake of the 12- to 17 or 12 to 15 vaccines back in May when it was approved for that age group, we saw that the uptake within the first three to four weeks was about a third of that total population. So that’s what we are anticipating happening is about, seam breakdown, around a third of the 515,000 total youngsters who are 5 to 11 will likely look for, again, a vaccine in the next three to four weeks and then it might plateau off. So that’s what we anticipate, as the secretary said.
[Question off mic]
- CHAN: So I think that what — so the — as it has been since the beginning of the vaccine campaign, the federal government has been front and center in terms of logistics and operations the vaccine and supply, including your alcohol pads, syringes, needles, etc., out. So they did change the syringes for this vaccine. The other thing that changed is that the package sizes are smaller. So you may have heard, and this, you know, has been a big logistic issue for us that the Pfizer vaccine would come in these large tries, multiple trays of 1175. So that’s a lot of doses to manage. So now they repackaged it so it’s actually smaller in quantity. But what that means is that the supplies that come with it also have to be repackaged in smaller quantities. So that’s not on us per se, so we have not purchased additional supplies there. But the supplies are coming with the vaccines, and as you heard, they are, you know, coming together. And kids are starting to get vaccinated around the state.
[Question off mic]
I don’t think at this point they’ve come out with a statement about whether they think shape should be required for school. I think we’ll need to take a look at data and make decisions as we progress. I will say that we’re pediatricians. We believe in vaccinations. Vaccinations save lives. We’re very good at giving vaccinations. We give thousands of them a year. So I think that, you know, as your pediatrician’s office is certainly a good place to get information about vaccines and talk to someone who is very comfortable with vaccines dispensing and with the side effects and things like that. So I think it’s really at this point an important one-on-one conversation to have with your pediatrician.
Anyone else?
[Question off mic]
[ off mic ]
Look. I reached out to congratulate the — in Virginia last night. Looking forward to hopefully sitting down with them. I’m very much looking forward to working together with them in the region. I think they sent a message all the statewide elected offices in Virginia. (Indiscernible) terrific guy who no one expected to win.
[ Indiscernible ]
Reminds me of Larry Hogan. He has no money. No one expected him to win. And he came out of nowhere. It happens. We haven’t gotten a final answer yet. But there’s a chance we may also be welcoming another younger — I think it was great. I think it sends two messages basically. One, that people that actually focus on talking about issues and solutions get elected by the voters. And two, perhaps President Biden who ran and — going to bring it back together overread the mandate on moving too far to the left. I think that was rejected by the voters all across the country.
[Question off mic]
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Say that again.
[Question off mic]
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Well, you know, when they first started talking about it back in May of last year, I was the first one on national television strongly disagreeing with that. The last week or so after we heard former city councilman talking about eliminating the police department, we talked about more funding for the police. Everywhere across the country, people that — mayor of New York is a former cop who said it’s crazy, can’t take money away from the police.
[ Indiscernible ]
I just saw national polling, 75 percent of the people in America agree with mean want more funding for police. Not less.
[Question off mic]
GOVERNOR HOGAN: It’s a frustrating situation. Obviously the voters overwhelmingly voted. Legislator crafted legislation which they now seem to be — they pass a law that they seem to be ignoring. The executive branch of government approved the — that’s already been vetted. Already doing gambling across the state many weeks ago —
[ Indiscernible ]
It appears as if the legislature and — to delay things as long as possible until they can do all of the other — the end result is opposite of what the law does. The law says have two sets of processes. If in fact they don’t act immediately to approve those and if the legislature has their way in violating the law, then it’s going to be at least a — and potentially it could kill the entire deal. So I didn’t see the details of the secret closed door meeting they had today. You don’t get to see what they do. But it’s a problem. And I’m sure they’re all going to be —
[ Indiscernible ]
Thank you.