COVID-19 vaccines are not only available, but they have been distributed across the nation with over 191 million U.S citizens fully vaccinated according to Our World in Data. In Texas alone, over 17 million citizens have received at least one dose and 15.4 million have been fully vaccinated. That makes approximately 53% of the population of Texas fully vaccinated.

On Wednesday, Oct. 20, the White House announced that they plan to authorize children ages 5 to 11 who are eligible to receive COVID shots. Officials state that they have prepared enough vaccines for every child of that age range which accounts to about 28 million children.

“If we can get the overwhelming majority of those 28 million children vaccinated, I think that would play a major role in diminishing the spread of infection in the community,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said. “That’s one of the reasons why we want to do as best as we can to get those children 5 to 11 vaccinated.”

Dr. Fauci is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and also the Chief Medical Advisor to the President. He was an official representing the White House for the announcement.

The operation is to begin as soon as federal health officials authorize the reduced dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which the Biden administration anticipates can arrive the first week of November at the earliest.

Until then, everyone age 12 or older is eligible to receive a free COVID-19 vaccine at their trusted location. If unsure of where to receive one, Vaccines.gov is the official CDC website dedicated to helping find vaccination centers in an area.

Recently, the Food and Drug Administration authorized “mix and match” booster shots for those who are eligible. This means that Americans can take any booster shot regardless of the original vaccine received. Guidelines from the CDC have been released regarding information of who may benefit from which booster shot.

On Thursday, Oct. 14, President Biden stated that the nation is “headed in the right direction” with its pandemic response but also stated it was “essential” that the remaining 66 million unvaccinated Americans receive their COVID-19 shots.