Business groups respond to Biden’s vaccine rules, majority of employees OK returning to office with unvaccinated coworkers, and Salesforce offers to relocate Texas workers

Hello, communicators:

The debate over vaccines continues in the U.S., as 63% of Americans have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 54% are fully vaccinated.

However, the vaccine may soon be available to a new demographic: children aged 5-11. Former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb explained how Pfizer is preparing to offer the shot to younger patients with emergency approval from federal regulators.

CBS reported:

“In a best-case scenario, given that timeline they’ve just laid out, you could potentially have a vaccine available to children aged 5 to 11 by Halloween,” Gottlieb said. “If everything goes well, the Pfizer data package is in order, and FDA ultimately makes a positive determination, I have confidence in Pfizer in terms of the data that they’ve collected. But this is really up to the Food and Drug Administration to make an objective determination.”

Even if a shot is available by Halloween, that will ensure that most of the 2021-2022 school year will see children attend class without a shot available for younger learners. And even for the kids and school employees who are eligible to get a shot now, vaccination rates are lagging.