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Vaccine for kids 5-11


nicash

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I've been reading that Pfizer is trying to get the vaccine approved for the 5-11 age group. We have a cruise mid Dec. Wondering if the cruise line will mandate it immediately for that age group! Hoping they at least wait until the new year before they mandate that ago group to cruise. 

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On 10/11/2021 at 8:49 AM, nicash said:

I've been reading that Pfizer is trying to get the vaccine approved for the 5-11 age group. We have a cruise mid Dec. Wondering if the cruise line will mandate it immediately for that age group! Hoping they at least wait until the new year before they mandate that ago group to cruise. 

i have the exact same question.  I have a Dec 19th cruise and a 10 year old waiting to get vaccinated.  

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14 minutes ago, dejavu21 said:

i have the exact same question.  I have a Dec 19th cruise and a 10 year old waiting to get vaccinated.  

Local school district has said they plan to use a 30 day delay from vaccine approval for the younger age district before they drop their mask mandate, I'd assume Royal will do the same. They'll likely give at least a 30/45 day delay to allow for delays in availability for kids, as well as the required delay between doses.

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7 minutes ago, TXcruzer said:

If memory serves correctly, there was very little wiggle room when the vaccine was approved for the 12 and up age group; the mandate was almost immediate.

I also thought that was the case, so I've been in high anxiety mode about our upcoming December 12th 12-night Anthem sailing. My 11-year-old would need to receive his first shot by November 7th in order to be considered fully vaccinated when we sail. Considering that the CDC won't meet until November 2nd/3rd, that doesn't give us much wiggle room to find a location with the new pediatric doses available. At this point, I'm willing to drive anywhere from MA to VA if that means the difference between sailing or not; my spouse's vacation time won't carry over to the following year and it's not like there are a lot of reasonable options left for booking something over the holidays.

And I've got to wrap my head around the latest protocols that seem to indicate we'll be limited to RC excursions for 4/6 ports regardless of our vaccination status... 🤦‍♀️

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16 minutes ago, Marlena said:

Oh! Which ports are these?

For November cruises, St. Lucia, Barbados, St. Kitts, and Antigua will all require an excursion through Royal. We aren't really into what's being offered in the cruise planner compared to what we normally do at those ports, and the excursions are much shorter (3 - 4 hours) than the time the ship will actually be in port, so I'm mentally preparing for disappointment if this requirement is still in place in December. (As a port day enthusiast, sticking to the ship for 12 days feels like A LOT.)

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1 hour ago, smokeybandit said:

I think you'll see a lot more hesitation for parents to get their 5-11 yr old vaccinated than getting themselves vaccinated. It'll be interesting to see how that all plays out if RC mandates a vaccine for that age group, especially if there's still a mask mandate.

You are correct about this. A couple of surveys show a roughly even split between three outlooks - 1/3 of parents will vaccinate their kids immediately, 1/3 will 'wait and see', and the final 1/3 are entirely opposed.

Good luck with this one, Royal! 

My guess is it will remain optional with restrictions to remain in place for unvaxxed kids. (Unless the CDC comes over the top and mandates it somehow).

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11 minutes ago, KWofPerth said:

You are correct about this. A couple of surveys show a roughly even split between three outlooks - 1/3 of parents will vaccinate their kids immediately, 1/3 will 'wait and see', and the final 1/3 are entirely opposed.

Good luck with this one, Royal! 

My guess is it will remain optional with restrictions to remain in place for unvaxxed kids. (Unless the CDC comes over the top and mandates it somehow).

I doubt it will be optional, unless all vaccines become optional.  They have had “eligible” individuals in the vaccine wording and doubt they would treat 5-11 different.  They had a chance to do that with 12-15 year olds or 16-17 year olds, and didn’t.  A 12 year old gets the same dose as an adult.  An 11 year old would get one third the dose.  An argument could be made that it’s more palatable to vaccinate an 11 year old than a 12 year old.

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19 minutes ago, gatorskin76 said:

I doubt it will be optional, unless all vaccines become optional.  They have had “eligible” individuals in the vaccine wording and doubt they would treat 5-11 different.  They had a chance to do that with 12-15 year olds or 16-17 year olds, and didn’t.  A 12 year old gets the same dose as an adult.  An 11 year old would get one third the dose.  An argument could be made that it’s more palatable to vaccinate an 11 year old than a 12 year old.

I'm coming at it from the POV that Royal is a family brand. With up to 2/3 of families not ready to vaccinate their kids yet, it might cause problems if they mandate it.  Don't get me wrong, I'd be fine if they did. I'm just musing on how it might affect their business. Time will tell, but an intriguing phase coming up I think.

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8 hours ago, smokeybandit said:

I think you'll see a lot more hesitation for parents to get their 5-11 yr old vaccinated than getting themselves vaccinated. It'll be interesting to see how that all plays out if RC mandates a vaccine for that age group, especially if there's still a mask mandate.

I'm *hoping* that if they mandate the vaccine for 5-11, it'll put them over the 95% vaxxed threshold and allow them to drop the mask mandate. I expect testing before embarkation to continue for the foreseeable future though.

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One would think that if the CDC made this a requirement on 11/1 (for example) that they would give people who are already booked to cruise in the month of November and probably December too, some leeway to get their kids doubly vaccinated.  Any bookings after that time you would have to comply. 

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5 minutes ago, D Alt said:

One would think that if the CDC made this a requirement on 11/1 (for example) that they would give people who are already booked to cruise in the month of November and probably December too, some leeway to get their kids doubly vaccinated.  Any bookings after that time you would have to comply. 

The CDC has no explicit vaccine requirement for cruise ships, oddly enough.  

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Just thinking about the timeline, I really don't see a way they could require pediatric vaccines before the first of the year, at the earliest. 

FDA panel is examining data today. If they recommend approval of the vaccine, it goes to the CDC for consideration next week. For sake of argument, let's say they approve it and the CDC commissioner signs off and vaccines are available by the end of next week. The Pfizer vaccine is two doses, supposed to be 21 days apart. And then you have to be 14 days after the second shot to be considered "fully vaccinated."

So you're really looking at five weeks minimum from the date of first dose to being considered vaccinated for RC's purposes. You have to build in some time to allow kids to get vaccinated, so my guess it would be at least a month longer than that before any kind of requirement would be on the table. 

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Agreed - apparently the kids' dose is 1/3 of adult dose... and they can't pull it from current adult vials as there is concern about whether the vaccine would have all the correct bits in it that you need (think of shaking up your OJ before you drink it).   So the kids' doses need to be manufactured and distributed.   They're going to need about 8-10 weeks before we see kids being fully vaxxed after its approval.

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6 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Since it's a new dosage of vaccine, it's it even feasible for vaccines to be available next week? It was easy for the 12-16 since they just pulled from the existing stock.

From what I've read, they're already working to get smaller needles and whatnot to doctors and clinics so that they can start administrating right away. I imagine they already have the new dosages packed and ready to ship as soon as they get the official green light.

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11 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

Since it's a new dosage of vaccine, it's it even feasible for vaccines to be available next week? It was easy for the 12-16 since they just pulled from the existing stock.

Pfizer has been in production for some time anticipating this move and say they're ready to ship as soon as they get the green light. That said, I don't know exactly how the distribution chain will work so it could be a situation where it's not available at every vaccine provider at the same time. 

EDIT:  Just found the info--they reportedly have about 20 million doses ready to go. They'll be shipped out to states on a pro rata basis based on how many eligible children each state has. 

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4 minutes ago, GKMCruising said:

From what I've read, they're already working to get smaller needles and whatnot to doctors and clinics so that they can start administrating right away. I imagine they already have the new dosages packed and ready to ship as soon as they get the official green light.

It's a completely different vial with different color coding to prevent mix ups between the adult dose.

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4 minutes ago, UNCFanatik said:

I just hope parents of 5-11 year olds wont solely use a cruise as the deciding factor to get vaccinated. 

 

 

I wouldn't cancel because of that. But due to such low incidence of covid cases on ships, adding a new protocol without getting rid of others (specifically, masks) sure would damper the experience.

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13 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

 

I wouldn't cancel because of that. But due to such low incidence of covid cases on ships, adding a new protocol without getting rid of others (specifically, masks) sure would damper the experience.

very true

And to clarify, my intent was that I hope going on a  cruise would be the deciding factor for a parent of a 5-11 year old to get them vaccinated. 

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14 hours ago, KWofPerth said:

I'm coming at it from the POV that Royal is a family brand. With up to 2/3 of families not ready to vaccinate their kids yet, it might cause problems if they mandate it.  Don't get me wrong, I'd be fine if they did. I'm just musing on how it might affect their business. Time will tell, but an intriguing phase coming up I think.

Royal may not have a choice if the destinations require the kids over 5 to be fully vaccinated.  If going on a cruise with the entire family, everyone will need to be vaccinated.

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53 minutes ago, SteelersNationVA said:

Royal may not have a choice if the destinations require the kids over 5 to be fully vaccinated.  If going on a cruise with the entire family, everyone will need to be vaccinated.

This is the crux right here. Some countries have vaccine requirements, RCL would be required to enforce them if they continue the requirements, and I cannot think of any reason they wouldnt. And this will likely stretch further as Pfizer will have data on covid vaccination for children 2 - 4 and 6 months - 2 year early 2022, it might become a requirement for everyone to be vaccinated. If so, I hope they remove some of the restrictions.

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I suspect that once the vaccine is approved for young ones, Royal will enforce it, but there will be time for people to get it so it won't be right away.  I personally was hoping that it would come in time for our Dec cruise.  Our kids are 12 and 16 so will be vaccinated.  They don't go to the kids clubs, but will join the kid friendly activities (e.g. Sea Plex, family pool, etc) it's a holiday and thus there will be ton of kids. Having said that, I do like the extra protocols that Royal has with the additional testing so that in itself is a comfort and not too worried.

 

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1 hour ago, WAAAYTOOO said:

I hope parents don't get their children vaccinated for ANY reason.

My wife and I have a cruise booked with our 3-year-old for May. I'm hoping he's eligible and fully vaxxed by then.

My wife has a PhD in biochemistry and has spent her career studying infectious diseases. I've spent the pandemic working in a hospital. We have our reasons. Many reasons. Science being the #1 reason. Same reasons he's been given all his other vaccinations.

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21 minutes ago, smokeybandit said:

FDA just recommended EUA, despite a lot of misgivings about unintended consequences

Wish they had done it a couple of weeks ago. Our next family cruise is thanksgiving week which even if we could get it for my daughter tomorrow would be nearly impossible to be “fully vaccinated” by 11/20. 

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27 minutes ago, Andrew72681 said:

Wish they had done it a couple of weeks ago. Our next family cruise is thanksgiving week which even if we could get it for my daughter tomorrow would be nearly impossible to be “fully vaccinated” by 11/20. 

Usually Royal is lenient about implementation of a new protocol for vaccine. They know the issues of getting the shots and the time frames are generally several months out from the start date in order to allow guests to schedule their children. They did this when the 13 to 18 shots were recommended. Royal will announce when they will start requiring vaccinations for that age group.

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I hope and believe that once the vaccine(s) is approved for ages 5-12, it will eventually be required to cruise.  Eventually schools will require it just like the other vaccine requirements for the past 150+ years.  Also in response to earlier comments about not basing their kids vaccine decision on cruising, I completely agree.  You should get your kids vaccinated for their health, your health, your family's health, and your fellow human beings health.  Cruising is just another excellent reason for people to vaccinate.  

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