An 8-year-old boy accidentally received a dose of COVID-19 vaccine in Texas due to “human error”, according to a report.
The child was recently inoculated in a vaccination unit in Dallas County, operated by the first respondents in Grand Prairie, after the boy’s father registered him online through a county website and received an appointment, NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth reported .
The three COVID-19 vaccines that are currently available in the US are used only in people over the age of 18 or 16 and older, depending on the manufacturer.
Pediatrician Marcial Oquendo told the media that the child’s father – who has not been identified – thought it was okay to vaccinate his son since he was able to register and was given a QR code.
He hypothesized that “I was sending him the information and he received an appointment,” Oquendo said. “And when he had a meeting, it was like, ‘We all have a meeting, so let’s go.'”
The father realized that he had made a mistake after talking to Oquendo.
“We don’t have data, especially under the age of 12, to say if it works, it’s uncertain how much we should use, which child can get it and which children can’t,” Oquendo said. “It must be in a controlled setting of a clinical trial in which we monitor every possible angle to be able to say whether it is safe and effective to use in children in this age group.”
Grand Prairie Fire Chief Robert Fite confirmed to NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth that the boy was one of 3,800 people who were inoculated at the scene that day.
Fite said the department intends to follow up the paramedic who administered the shooting and find out more about how the mishap occurred.
“I’m in the car, there’s a code, the paramedic did what the paramedic did for thousands of others that day and he went on and gave the vaccination and didn’t realize he was a child under the age of 18.” said Fite, according to NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth.
Fite explained that if a person receives a QR code to get the vaccine, “part of our assumption is that they understand who should be registered and who should not.”
Fite said the vaccine site operates under the authority of Dallas County and is also seeking answers from county officials.
“I had some questions about how a child under 18 could even register,” he said. “If there was a failure system, we wouldn’t even have to worry because you wouldn’t be able to register.”
Meanwhile, Oquendo said he notified the Dallas County Pediatric and Medical Society of the case, according to the news site.
“We’re still trying to figure out what to do next,” he said. “We’re trying to figure out who needs to know what.”
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins told reporters the “human error” allowed the boy to be vaccinated against coronavirus.
“He was included in the suspended ineligible list. There was a human error, and that list was moved to make people under the age of 50 on the eligible list. They failed to wash people under the age of 18, “Jenkins said.
Jenkins added: “We have our IT department working with the third party company to make sure it doesn’t happen again, to see if it can be fully automated.”
“We have more training for our doctors, so they know if they see a person who doesn’t seem old enough for that vaccine to 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 it’s Johnson & Johnson or Moderna, ”said Jenkins.
Both Pfizer and Moderna have begun testing COVID-19 vaccines in younger children.
Pfizer said late last month that its vaccine is 100% effective in children between the ages of 12 and 15.