Children aged 5 to 11 years will need to show proof that they have been vaccinated before they can enter restaurants or entertainment venues.
This progressive city was the first to impose strict vaccination mandates on indoor venues in August for all adults and children over 12.
Officials from the city plan to make such requirements available to children as young at five years old. They made the announcement at a Tuesday town hall meeting. This was the same day that the CDC approved emergency approval for the Pfizer BioNTech shot to this age group.
Susan Philip, San Francisco’s Health Officer, said that children would be given two months to fully get vaccinated before they have to show their vaccination passports.

San Francisco will require children 5-11 years of age to present proof of vaccination before they can enter indoor venues. Susan Philip, San Francisco Health Officer, made the announcement via Zoom at a meeting via Zoom on Tuesday.

Officials in the city made the announcement at the same time that the CDC approved the PFizer BioNTech emergency approval for that age group. Above, a child was given the shot Wednesday in Los Angeles
‘We definitely want to wait and make sure children have an opportunity to get vaccinated, so that will happen no sooner than about eight weeks after the vaccine is available to kids, so there will be a limited time in which there will not be those requirements in our plan,’ she said. ‘But at some point, five to 11 year olds will also have to show proof of vaccination to access some of those same settings.’
California began vaccinating children in this age group the day after the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices unanimously voted 14-0 in favor of the pediatric vaccine.
Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, then approved the vote. This means that approximately 28 million children in America are now eligible to receive the shots.
It was the final step in the process that will allow injections in young children to begin this week in the United States, with President Joe Biden issuing a statement calling the decision ‘a turning point’ in the battle against Covid-19 and said they had secured enough vaccines for every child in America.
Children who have been vaccinated receive a third of what adults get and are required to make two appointments 21 days apart.
Pfizer claims that the lower dose was chosen in order to minimize side effects and still give strong immunity. Furthermore, studies have shown that it is around 91 percent effective against Covid.

Children who have been vaccinated receive a third of what adults get. Above: A child was vaccinated Wednesday at Los Angeles
Officials from the San Francisco Department of Public Health on Wednesday confirmed the plan and noted that children wouldn’t be required to show a valid form of ID.
‘As with children 12-17 who may not have personal identification, we will follow the same approach with the younger kids such that they would not be penalized for not having an ID,’ a spokesperson from the department wrote in an email to Politico.
San Francisco’s requirement for children would be the first of its kind and the city does not require children to show proof of vaccination to enter school buildings.
Los Angeles Unified Schools District, which requires children up to 12 years old to be vaccinated announced this week it will not include children five to 11 years old in its school vaccine mandate.
Governor Gavin Newsom’s vaccine mandate for children in schools won’t take effect until the FDA has given full approval.
Bernadette Rosselli, a local mother, told Fox News that the mandate was ‘absolutely ridiculous.’
She said, ‘Parents are concerned and rightly so. I think that it’s important that we take the time to make sure that it’s gonna be safe, especially when they’re at such a low rate of risk. It’s really not necessary to rush into this. Let’s give it a little time.’
Many parents have not decided whether to vaccinate their children. This is because children are very rare to get seriously ill, and they account for less that 1% of all Covid deaths across the U.S. according the CDC.
Dr. Houman Hemmati noted the low infection rates in an interview with Fox News and said, ‘With vaccines, as with any drug, there’s a calculation that has to be made of risk, benefit and need.’

The majority of parents who do not plan to have their child, aged 12-17, vaccinated for Covid are concerned about side effects. Around a third wait to see if the vaccine proves safe and 25% aren’t sure if their children need the shots.

Due to the low risk of severe illnesses, only a third (33%) of parents said they would have their children vaccinated immediately. A third said they would wait and see. Five percent said they would only do it if necessary, while thirty percent said they would not.
He added, ‘If a drug has a great risk benefit, but it doesn’t have a medical need, why take it? If I’m not in pain, I don’t take a pain medicine for example. That’s a generalization, but for vaccines you have to make sure there is a need.’
A hospital in Connecticut began administering Covid-19 vaccines to children, aged between five to 11, just minutes after the CDC officially signed off on approval.
The CDC’s decision has sparked a storm of controversy, with critics pointing out the fact that there is very little evidence to support the idea of vaccinating children.
The US is now the first country to approve jabs for this age group. Scientists in Britain warned officials not to ‘blindly follow America’ and recommended the jab to children as young as three years old.
China is said to have begun offering its own vaccines to children under three years of age. Chile is also offering vaccines for children six years or older. Israel is expected to follow the US’ lead after the CDC approved the jabs.
These countries are the exception. Countries are still weighing the benefits and risks of this decision. Most of these countries are only vaccinating children between 12 and 24 years old.
Rosselli is one example of a majority of parents who are hesitant about getting their child vaccinated. They fear possible side effects.
The Week 39 Household Pulse survey, conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau and published on Wednesday, asked parents of children aged 12 to 17 – who were unsure or definitely did not plan to get their child vaccinated – their reasons for hesitation.
A majority of parents, 69 percent, expressed concern about side-effects. Only one in four parents reported that their children required the shot.

After receiving the Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine to protect his children at Hartford Hospital, Hartford, Connecticut, a ten year-old boy gives Colleen Teevan a high five.
13 million parents responded out of 45.7 million to the survey. They either weren’t sure, would not, or would not get their child vaccinated.
The 13 million respondents were then asked to explain why they didn’t want to get their children jabbed.
Nearly one-third of respondents stated that they would wait until the vaccine was safe for their children.
Around 30% of parents say they don’t trust the government. Only 3 percent say they won’t give their child vaccines.
California is the state with the highest percentage of vaccine-refusing parents who don’t trust the government at 71 percent
Many of these parents also belong to the 69 percent of parents who are concerned over the side-effects of the jab and the 24 percent who are unsure if their children require the shot.
Myocarditis, or heart inflammation, is the most serious side effects that can occur in children. Although it is rare, it can cause death in more serious cases.
However, such a condition has only been reported in patients who received the Johnson & Johnson or AstraZeneca shots.
More than 1.9 million Covid-19 cases were reported among children aged five to eleven years old in the United States. There were more than 8,300 hospitalizations, over 2,300 cases MIS-C (pediatric multisystem inflammatory disorder), and approximately 100 deaths.
Many parents don’t think their children will be vaccinated. One poll found that around a third of respondents would not agree.
Another third of the respondents said they would wait to see and five percent said they would only do so ‘if necessary’. Only 27% of parents said that they would get their children vaccinated immediately.