Mother and nurse says COVID vaccine for her young children is ‘like a weight was lifted’

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — Parents are already scheduling their young children to get the COVID vaccine.

The final approval for kids five to 11 came Tuesday night and the first appointments were locked in Wednesday.

Ashley Bennington is a nurse and comes into contact with COVID patients. She has a son with severe asthma and today she told me it feels like a weight’s been lifted.

Bennington has four children. Her two youngest — 10 and 11 — are now eligible to get their COVID-19 shot.

Brean: "Ashley in your tweet last night you wrote ‘what a relief to be able to protect my two youngest children.’ Describe that sense of relief."

Ashley Bennington, mother of four: "It’s like a weight was lifted."

Bennington calls it an added layer of protection.

Wednesday morning she called her pediatrician’s office and just before we connected on Zoom, the office called to confirm the shots for Saturday.

Brean: "So pretty simple. They show up at their doctor’s office and get the shot."

Ashley: "Couldn’t be any easier."

I tested the system.

My pediatrician told my family to call back next Tuesday.

I put in my son’s birthday and zip code on CVS.com and the earliest time slots were next Tuesday.

I did the same thing with Walgreens, and the first available times were on Monday.

Wednesday afternoon, there was no option to schedule a shot at Wegmans through its website.

URMC says "we expect pediatricians will provide the vaccine."

Dr. Steven Shulz is a pediatrician with Rochester Regional in Geneva.

"It’s about protecting kids. Keeping them safe, keeping them healthy," he said in a Zoom news conference. "Getting this vaccine is going to help keep those schools even safer than what they already are."

When I tried to book a time to test the system, the only personal information I was asked for my ZIP code and my child’s date of birth. For children, the needle is going to be smaller and the dose is a third of what adults got.

The vial will have an orange cap and it’s a two-shot regimen, 21 days apart.