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Biden stumps for McAuliffe in Virginia ahead of gubernatorial election

October 27, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(ARLINGTON, Va.) — Headlining a rally Tuesday evening, President Joe Biden was the latest national Democrat to campaign in Virginia for gubernatorial nominee Terry McAuliffe, joining a long list of prominent figures in the party who’ve descended on the commonwealth to mobilize voters against Republican nominee Glenn Youngkin.

“You all know the stakes,” Biden told a crowd of supporters at the Virginia Highlands Park in Arlington, just outside the nation’s capital. “You don’t have to wonder what kind of governor Terry will be because you know what a great governor he was. It wasn’t just because of what he promised, it’s what he delivered.”

This marked the president’s second time stumping for McAuliffe; he first campaigned with him in late July.

Always falling the year after a presidential election, Virginia’s off-year elections, in particular the gubernatorial race, are considered a bellwether for politics heading into the midterm elections. Virginia trended increasingly blue over the four years of Donald Trump’s presidency, but this election will be the first measure of how lasting that rebuke of the GOP is in what used to be a presidential battleground. A loss for McAuliffe, or even a narrow win, will also serve as a warning shot for Democrats in Washington that an unpopular president and stalled agenda defined by intraparty differences could cost them their slim majorities in Congress next year.

Biden’s approval is not only underwater nationally, but also in Virginia, where a Monmouth poll out last week showed more than half of voters disapprove of the job he is doing as president.

Trump endorsed Youngkin after he secured the Republican nomination in May, but he has not done any events with the candidate. He called into a rally in support of the statewide GOP ticket where attendees pledged allegiance to a flag said to be carried at the rally preceding the Jan. 6 insurrection, but Youngkin was not there and denounced the pledge as “weird and wrong.” The Republican has had to toe the thin line between being too pro- or anti-Trump so as not to alienate voters on either end of the political spectrum, and he’s fired back at McAuliffe’s Trump attacks by reminding his opponent that Trump is not on the ballot, trying to keep the focus on Virginia-specific issues.

The state rejected the former president twice (and by a 10-point margin in 2020), Democrats flipped the state legislature in 2019 and Republicans haven’t won statewide office in over a decade — all indications Trump is politically toxic in Virginia. McAuliffe and other Democrats have tried to use Trump’s toxicity to drag down Youngkin, tying him to the former president at every opportunity.

But during Tuesday night’s rally, Biden borrowed McAuliffe’s playbook, closely tying Youngkin to the former president.

“How well do you know Terry’s opponent? Well, just remember this, I ran against Donald Trump. Terry is running against an acolyte of Donald Trump,” Biden said, claiming Youngkin has embraced Trump’s “bad ideas and bad record.”

The president also comment on how Youngkin hasn’t done any campaign events with Trump, claiming the GOP nominee “won’t allow Donald Trump to campaign for him in this state.”

“What’s he trying to hide? Is there a problem with Trump being here? Is he embarrassed?” Biden rhetorically asked the crowd.

Despite the race tightening over the last few weeks, McAuliffe is confident he’ll once again break the so-called “Virginia curse” of candidates losing Virginia’s off-year gubernatorial race if they have the same party affiliation as the current occupant of the White House. He broke it in 2013 when Barack Obama was president.

Barred by Virginia law from seeking a consecutive term, McAuliffe is vying for a comeback eight years after first winning the governor’s mansion, and despite Democrats’ recent gains, he’s locked in a tight race with Youngkin, a former private equity executive running his first campaign for political office. According to FiveThirtyEight’s polling average, the McAuliffe’s lead is under two points one week out from Election Day — down from a nearly eight-point peak over Youngkin he had in early August.

Biden touted McAuliffe first term in office, even saying he’s “taking a page” from the Democrat’s book by including an expansion of pre-K in his Build Back Better bill that Congress and the White House are still negotiating. Biden also plugged McAuliffe’s record on the economy and creating new jobs, saying, “If you’re looking for someone who’s going to keep your economy going and growing, the man behind me’s the guy to get it done.”

Calling in help from national politicians is in line with how McAuliffe and other Democrats have nationalized the stakes of this race.

“This election is about the next chapter of Virginia — and our country,” McAuliffe said at a rally in Richmond with Obama Saturday.

“What happens here, I promise you is about people in these state and the people of our country,” Vice President Kamala Harris said at a rally in Prince William County Thursday.

In addition to Obama and Harris, who will be back in the state Friday for a concert rally in Norfolk with Virginia Beach native Pharrell Williams, McAuliffe has had first lady Jill Biden, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Stacey Abrams and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms campaign for him. Sens. Cory Booker, D-N.J., and Alex Padilla, D-Calif., are campaigning for him in Northern Virginia Wednesday night.

Youngkin has taken a different approach as the campaign ends, touting his 10-day, 50-stop “Win with Glenn” bus tour around the commonwealth and mocking his opponent for relying “on big name surrogates to draw paltry, apathetic crowds.”

“Nobody’s coming to campaign with me,” Youngkin told CBS last week. “I mean, this is a race about Virginians and about the Virginia challenges.”

Polls show Republicans are more enthusiastic about participating in this election than Democrats. How heavily Washington’s woes weigh on McAuliffe, and whether enough Virginia voters buy the Democrats’ attempts to paint Youngkin and Trump as one in the same, and in turn, vote against him in this race, won’t be known until the votes are counted.

Mark Rozell, dean of George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, told ABC News Tuesday that the number of national surrogates stumping for McAuliffe is indicative of Democrats’ concerns.

“I think a lot of that has to do with the McAuliffe campaign being worried that the Democratic base is asleep right now, that the Democratic brand right now is suffering because of the declining popularity of the president, what happened in Afghanistan, the perception that the party just can’t get it together in Washington to get things done,” said Rozell, who’s covered this race in the Washington Post’s opinion section.

McAuliffe himself has acknowledged the president’s falling support in Virginia.

“We got to get Democrats out to vote. We are facing a lot of headwinds from Washington, as you know. The president is unpopular today, unfortunately, here in Virginia, so we have got to plow through,” he said during a virtual rally on Oct. 5 that was clipped by the Republican National Committee and posted on social media.

In a statement ahead of Biden’s quick trip across the river, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said McAuliffe knows the president “is failing Virginians.”

“With an unprecedented amount of Republican enthusiasm, Virginians are ready to reject Terry McAuliffe and Joe Biden this November and turn out for Glenn Youngkin and Republicans up and down the ballot,” she said.

Jeannie Seely, Ashley McBryde, and Carly Pearce agree: The Opry’s a family unlike any other

October 27, 2021 by WDNY Radio

This weekend, Nashville’s legendary Grand Ole Opry marks its 5000th Saturday night show — a feat that would take more than 96 years to repeat.

So what does it take to become the world’s longest-running radio show? Jeannie Seely — the Grammy-winning Opry legend who’s been a member since 1967 — has a theory.

“It’s not like anything else,” she tells ABC Audio. “Quite often there are three generations on the stage, and three generations in the audience. You don’t see that. You may see three generations in the crowd at a sporting event, but you don’t see them on the field.”

“I think that is one thing that knits [the Opry] together,” she explains. “One generation gets to know the one before, and the one after.”

It’s a phenomenon the “Don’t Touch Me” hitmaker demonstrated backstage, as she and Ashley McBryde visited about the recent Opry induction of Carly Pearce, Ashley’s duet partner on “Never Wanted to Be That Girl.”

“I’m in [dresssing] room 18 tonight, [themed] ‘The Women of Country,'” Ashley said, “And we walked in, the first thing I did was walk over to [Carly’s] picture and take a selfie, and I was like, ‘She looks so beautiful!'”

“It was such a whirlwind for her, and I knew that…” Jeannie reminisced. “We live in the same hood and I get to be around her now that she’s a little Opry sister — Little? You know, that I look up to,” she added.

Saturday night, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood, Darius Rucker, Chris Young, Vince Gill, Connie Smith, Dustin Lynch, Chris Janson and many more, will help Jeannie and the Opry mark the milestone.

“After all these years, I can’t even explain what that extended family means to any artist that’s here,” she reflects.

Scoreboard roundup — 10/26/21

October 27, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Tuesday’s sports events:

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PLAYOFFS
Atlanta 6 Houston 2 (Atlanta leads series 1-0)

NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
New York 112, Philadelphia 99
Golden State 106, Oklahoma City 98
Dallas 116, Houston 106
LA Lakers 125, San Antonio 121 (OT)
Utah 122, Denver 110

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
Tampa Bay 5, Pittsburgh 1
Calgary 5, New Jersey 3
Vegas 3, Colorado 1
Nashville 3, San Jose 1
Minnesota 3, Vancouver 2
Seattle 5 Montreal 1
Winnipeg 4, Anaheim 3

MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER
Los Angeles FC 3, Seattle 0

FDA panel greenlights vaccines for kids, paving the way for authorization

October 27, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Vaccines for 28 million American children are on the way to authorization after an advisory panel at the Food and Drug Administration voted in support of the Pfizer vaccine for kids ages 5-11 on Tuesday afternoon.

The vote was the first step in a regulatory process for the two-shot Pfizer vaccine that could allow kids to get their first shots in early November and become fully immunized by early December.

Next, leaders of the FDA have the chance to officially sign off, potentially as soon as Tuesday night. If and when that happens, the White House will begin shipping doses, senior officials told governors on a call Tuesday afternoon that was obtained by ABC News.

But there are still more steps before shots go into arms: If authorized by the FDA, the process would move to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention next Tuesday, when a CDC panel meets to discuss the same data reviewed by the FDA advisers.

“If all goes well, and we get the regulatory approval, and the recommendations from the CDC, it’s entirely possible, if not, very likely, that vaccines will be available for children from 5 to 11 within the first week or two of November,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser for the White House, said in an interview on Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”

Many parents are desperate to protect their children after the delta surge over the summer led to increased cases and hospitalizations among kids. Though the variant is not more deadly, it is more transmissible — and because kids are unvaccinated, the variant rocketed through schools and camps.

The most recent data from Pfizer’s clinical trials found that the vaccine for 5-11 year olds was nearly 91% effective against symptomatic illness.

For kids, the vaccine will be given at a smaller, one-third dose.

The vaccine also appeared safe. None of the children in the clinical trials experienced a rare heart inflammation side effect known as myocarditis, which has been associated with the mRNA vaccines in very rare cases, mostly among young men.

And in a review of the data that assumed the worst — that kids could experience myocarditis at the same rates as young men, which many experts don’t believe will be the case — the FDA’s senior adviser for benefit-risk assessment, Hong Yang, still found that in the majority of scenarios, kids will still be safer once vaccinated.

Dr. Matthew Oster, a pediatric cardiologist, told the panel during his presentation on myocarditis that one of the leading theories is that the heart inflammation is linked to testosterone and hormones, which is why it has occurred more often in teenage boys and young men. Oster also said people tend to recover quickly from the kind of myocarditis experienced after vaccination.

But he noted that long-term study of myocarditis is still needed.

“We really need to see what the long-term outcomes for these kids will be. So far, the data for follow-up results is sparse but ongoing follow-up is in progress,” Oster said.

Despite the near-unanimous vote, Oster and Yang’s presentations were among the most debated.

The FDA experts ultimately agreed all children should have the opportunity to get vaccinated, but many also voiced concern over the remaining unknowns about adverse effects, weighing that against the relatively low risk of hospitalization or death from COVID for kids.

Most FDA advisers felt very clearly that the benefits outweighed the risk.

“To me the question is pretty clear. We don’t want children to be dying in COVID, even if it is far fewer children than adults, and we don’t want them in the ICU,” said Dr. Amanda Cohn, chief medical officer for the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

Although children are less likely to die of COVID-19 than older adults, nearly 2 million kids in the 5-11 age group have gotten COVID. Of those, 8,300 have been hospitalized, about one-third of whom have been in the intensive care unit, and almost 100 kids have died.

Cohn said if adverse events like myocarditis increase among kids, the safety systems in place will flag and address the problem.

Dr. Jeannette Lee, a biostatistician at the University of Arkansas, also agreed.

“Obviously, the adverse events are always a concern, but they don’t seem to be overwhelming really, at this point,” Lee said. “I will say that the school closures and the disruption, I think has been enormous.”

But some, though they voted in favor, also felt there should be caveats to the authorization.

“I’m just worried that if we say yes, that the states are going to mandate administration of this vaccine to children in order to go to school, and I do not agree with that. I think that would be an error at this time, until we get more information about the safety,” Dr. Cody Meissner, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Tufts Children’s Hospital, told his colleagues on the panel.

For his part, FDA’s vaccine chief Dr. Peter Marks said the experts should trust that any adverse effects would be closely monitored and acted on if necessary.

The safety teams at the FDA and CDC “are incredibly committed and devoted to making sure that we understand the nature of the safety events and that we catch these signals as soon as we possibly can,” Marks said. “That’s what we’re here to do.”

The White House has purchased enough pediatric doses to vaccinate all 28 million children ages 5 to 11. If authorized, it will be distributed to thousands of sites, including pediatricians, family doctors, hospitals, health clinics and pharmacies enrolled in a federal program that guarantees the shots are provided for free.

Some states are planning to provide the vaccine through schools as well.

The 5-11 age group would be the youngest and latest to receive eligibility. The Pfizer vaccine has already been authorized for adolescents 12 and up, and everyone 18 and older is eligible for all three vaccines: Pfizer, Moderna and J&J.

Whether parents will embrace the vaccines for their kids is still a question. In a September poll, the Kaiser Family Foundation found that about a third of parents with kids ages 5-11 were willing to vaccinate their kids right away, while another third wanted to “wait and see.” The figures represented a slight uptick in vaccine acceptance among parents of elementary-school-aged kids since July.

Trials for children 2 years and up, the next age group that could become eligible, are ongoing. Data from the clinical trials is expected sometime this winter.

‘The Bachelorette’ recap: A liar among the group leaves Michelle and her suitors scrambling for answers

October 27, 2021 by WDNY Radio

The Bachelorette continued Tuesday with Michelle Young trying to find the culprit who’s been spreading rumors about her and one of her potential suitors.

Michelle was clued into the drama following her first on-on-one date with Jamie, where the two shared a rock-climbing adventure. Jamie took their relationship to new heights by opening up about the heartbreaking story of his mother, who struggled with mental health issues and died by suicide when he was 24-years-old. Jamie said he struggled with a years-long battle with severe depression because of the tragedy.

Michelle pinned the date rose on Jamie and told him that she was “beyond impressed” with the “beautiful person” he’d become.

Unfortunately, Jamie demonstrated an uglier side of himself heading into the rose ceremony and addressed a rumor he overheard concerning Michelle and Joe — who hails from her home state of Minnesota and received a group date rose — dating each other prior to appearing on the show.

The other suitors appeared unfazed by the gossip, but Jamie felt the need to confront Michelle about the alleged relationship. However, he claimed it was the other suitors — and not him — who were up in arms.

Michelle then confessed to the group that she and Joe “exchanged a few messages quite a few years back,” but the real estate broker “ghosted” her and “that was that.” That speech left the group wondering who confronted Michelle behind their backs.

At the rose ceremony, Alec, Daniel, Pardeep and PJ were sent home.

Along with Joe, Jamie and Brandon, the latter of whom also received a group date rose, here are the other men remaining after the first rose ceremony:

Brandon J., 26, a traveling nurse recruiter from Portland, Ore.
Casey, 36, an advertising creative director from Miami Beach, Fla.
Chris G., 28, a motivational speaker from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Chris S., 28, a commodities broker from West Hollywood, Calif.
Clayton, 28, a medical sales rep from Columbia, Mo.
Jamie, 32, a biotech CEO from San Diego, Calif.
Joe, 28, a real estate developer from Minneapolis, Minn.
Leroy, 27, a biomedical Ph.D. student from Dallas, Texas
LT, 38, a yoga guru from Bellevue, Wash.
Martin, 29, a personal trainer from Miami, Fla.
Mollique, 36, an academic administrator from San Diego, Calif.
Nayte, 27, a sales executive from Austin, Texas
Olu, 27, an IT analyst from Newark, N.J.
Peter, 26, a pizzapreneur from Port St. Joe, Fla.
Rick, 32, a medical sales rep from Los Angeles, Calif.
Rodney, 29, a sales rep from Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
Romeo, 32, a mathematician from New York City, N.Y.
Spencer, 25, a financial crimes analyst from Cleveland, Ohio
Will, 28, an academic interventionist from Grand Rapids, Minn.

The Bachelorette returns Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

If you are in crisis or know someone in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. You can reach Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860 (U.S.) or 877-330-6366 (Canada) and The Trevor Project at 866-488-7386.

Teyana Taylor reveals benefits of being away from husband as he competes on ‘Dancing with the Stars’

October 27, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Teyana Taylor is celebrating her husband, Iman Shumpert, and his Dancing with the Stars partner, Daniella Karagach, achieving a perfect score Monday on the TV dance competition. The “Gonna Love Me” singer remains on the East Coast while her hubby competes in LA, and she says there are some benefits to be being briefly separated.

“I think once you see one another, that I miss you sex is the best, so I think that is the spark, like, not being up on each other all day,” the singer/actress/fashion designer tells Us Weekly.

“It’s just like you are admiring one another, like, ‘Damn, you’re doing your thing,'” she adds. “Let me be doing this for our kids, so when we see each other, it’s nothing but love and just comfort and spice.”

Teyana is now preparing for her 12-city farewell tour, which kicks off November 7 in San Francisco. In addition, she’s working as the creative director of the fashion company PrettyLittleThing, while also taking care of their children, daughters Iman Jr., 5, and Rue, 13 months.

The 30-year-old entertainer is very proud to see her NBA star husband excelling with Karagach outside of his basketball comfort zone.

“I honestly think that their chemistry is amazing,” Taylor explains. “I think that Daniella is an amazing choreographer. I’m a dancer, so I appreciate what she do and then she kills it.”

After five years of marriage, the MTV VMA winner says she’s not jealous of seeing her husband dancing with another woman.

“I’m too secure in my s*** to be worrying about that,” the Coming 2 America star says. “I think that’s the part that we love about each other the most, because we do our job and we literally keep it pushing.”

Black Veil Brides wonders whether the sun will come out ‘Tomorrow’ with new concept album

October 27, 2021 by WDNY Radio

If there was ever the ultimate Black Veil Brides album, The Phantom Tomorrow might be it.

The band’s sixth studio effort, due out this Friday, is a conceptually driven piece that will be accompanied by action figures and comic books. And that’s not to mention the epic, cinematic music itself.

“Being six records into our career, it was extremely important to all of us that we make a record that felt like it was an evolution for us musically, but also honored the parts of our past that have gotten us to this point,” frontman Andy Biersack tells ABC Audio.

The Phantom Tomorrow is BVB’s third concept album, following 2013’s Wretched and Divine: The Story of the Wild Ones and 2018’s Vale. However, it’s a shorter, punchier listen than its predecessors, and, according to Biersack, is more interested in a “musical interpretation of an idea” than “beating you over the head with such an overt narrative.”

“You want to make a record that…stands on its own merits, but you also don’t want to make a record that the concept is impossible to understand,” Biersack says.

There still is the story to The Phantom Tomorrow, which follows a character known as Blackbird and what is essentially a personification of the supposed guaranteed existence of a tomorrow, something that might be upended by, say, a global pandemic. Basically, it’s like if Little Orphan Annie was having an existential crisis.

“[The album’s about] the idea that tomorrow is this kind of ever-present, omnipotent feeling of it’s gonna happen, it’s gonna be there, it’s always there, but the darkness that lives beneath that and the ideas that lie beneath that of, ‘But something could happen,'” Biersack says. “What bad or good could happen before that tomorrow comes has always interested me.”

“Fancy Like” singer Walker Hayes stole his dad’s credit card to eat at…guess where

October 27, 2021 by WDNY Radio

Walker Hayes‘ viral hit “Fancy Like” is known as the “Applebee’s song” because in the lyrics, he not only mentions eating at the chain restaurant, but also name checks specific menu items like Bourbon Street Steak. But Walker says he didn’t mention those things because he hoped Applebee’s would use the song in an ad or anything — he was simply describing something he and his wife Lainey have been doing for decades.

“Lainey and I have been going to Applebee’s since we were 17,” Walker tells ABC Audio. “I was stealing my dad’s credit card in high school all the time, going to Applebee’s, getting steak against his wishes!”

“Steak was up there, the price tag on the Bourbon Street Steak,” he recalls. “Dad wasn’t likin’ that. But it was so good!”

Of course, since that Applebee’s did end up using the song in an ad — which Walker claims he never saw coming — he and his family can now eat all the Bourbon Street Steak they ever wanted.

“Lainey and I love Applebee’s. We’re so grateful that Applebee’s is winning from this song,” he tells ABC Audio. “It sounds silly…but I had no idea that Applebee’s would benefit from a silly song like this. But I love that they are, and I love that they’re making us feel, y’know, a part of the family.”

Walker’s latest single “U Gurl” also has a TikTok dance to go with it.

The J. Geils Band’s chart-topping 1981 album ‘Freeze-Frame’ celebrates its 40th anniversary

October 27, 2021 by WDNY Radio

This week marks the 40th anniversary of the release of The J.Geils Band‘s chart-topping album, Freeze-Frame.

Released on October 26, 1981, Freeze-Frame saw the veteran blues/R&B-influenced rock band finally enjoy major commercial success after years of critical acclaim and moderate popularity.

The album spent four weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 in February of 1982, while the song “Centerfold” became the group’s only single to top the Billboard Hot 100, enjoying a six-week run at the pinnacle of the chart around the same time.

Freeze-Frame also yielded a #4 Hot 100 hit with its title track, while a third single, the ballad “Angel in Blue,” peaked at #40.

The popularity of “Centerfold” and “Freeze-Frame” were bolstered by music videos for the tunes that went into heavy rotation on MTV.

Keyboardist Seth Justman wrote or co-wrote all of Freeze-Frame‘s nine tracks, and he produced and arranged the record. Four of the songs were co-penned by frontman Peter Wolf, among them “Freeze-Frame.”

Freeze-Frame, which was The J. Geils Band’s 10th studio effort, went on to sell more than one million copies in the U.S., making it the group’s only album to be certified Platinum by the RIAA.

Wolf left The J. Geils Band in 1983 because of disagreements over the group’s musical direction, and began solo career. The band released just one more studio album, 1984’s You’re Gettin’ Even While I’m Gettin’ Odd, which featured Justman taking over lead vocals. The band broke up in ’85.

Over the years, J. Geils Band members have participated in various full or partial reunions, most recently in 2015. Band leader and guitarist John “J.” Geils died in 2017 at age 71.

Here’s the full Freeze-Frame track list:

“Freeze-Frame”
“Rage in the Cage”
“Centerfold”
“Do You Remember When”
“Insane, Insane Again”
“Flamethrower”
“River Blindness”
“Angel in Blue”
“P*** on the Wall”

FDA panel greenlights COVID-19 vaccines for kids ages 5 to 11: Five things to know

October 27, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — COVID-19 vaccine shots for kids ages 5 to 11 may be available as soon as November after a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted Tuesday in support of the Pfizer vaccine for kids.

The vote is the first step in the authorization process that would make the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine available for the approximately 28 million children in the United States ages 5 to 11.

Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said on “Good Morning America” Tuesday that getting more kids vaccinated will be key to ending the pandemic in the U.S.

“If we can create a situation where more of these kids are not getting infected, we should be able to drive this pandemic down, which is what we really hope to do, even as we face the cold [weather] and other concerns about whether we might see another surge,” said Collins. “We don’t want that, and this would be one significant step forward in getting our country really in a better place.”

As the countdown begins, here are five things parents should know about COVID-19 vaccines and kids under the age of 12.

1. Kids ages 5 to 11 are still not yet eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine.

The FDA panel’s approval Tuesday does not mean that children ages 5 to 11 will immediately be eligible to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

The leaders of the FDA need to sign off on the advisory panel’s decision, and then the decision will move to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory group.

That group, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, is scheduled to meet next Tuesday to review the same data reviewed by the FDA advisers.

Then, once the ACIP recommends the vaccine, the CDC director must sign off on it, the final step in the authorization process.

Once that decision is made, the vaccine would be able to be administered relatively quickly to children across the country.

At the same time, the FDA will continue to review data to decide whether to grant full FDA approval for the vaccine in kids ages 5 to 11.

The FDA approved the Pfizer vaccine for people ages 16 and older in August. It is currently authorized for emergency use in children ages 12 to 15.

The two other vaccines currently available in the U.S., Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, are currently available only for people 18 years and older.

Moderna said Monday it plans to submit data to the FDA soon showing its vaccine for children ages 6 to 11 produces a strong immune response and appears safe.

2. The Pfizer dose is different for kids under age 12.

In Pfizer and BioNTech’s clinical trial of more than 2,200 children, the COVID-19 vaccine was administered in two doses, but the doses were one-third the amount given to adults.

The clinical trial results, which have not yet been peer-reviewed, showed the antibody response in children at that dose was at least as strong as the full adult dose in patients ages 16 to 25.

Pfizer and BioNTech say the vaccine produced minimal side effects in children ages 5 to 11, and the side effects were similar to those experienced by adults and older children.

For 12- to 15-year-olds, the FDA has authorized the same dosing as adults with the Pfizer two-dose vaccine.

3. The vaccine’s focus is on kids’ immune systems.

Children have different immune systems than adults, so it should be reassuring for parents that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has been shown to be safe in kids.

Differing immune systems among people of different ages also help explain why the cutoffs for vaccine eligibility rest on age and not body size.

In addition to the COVID-19 vaccine, other immunizations are also scheduled and administered based on age and not weight. This is partially due to the fact that the body’s immune responses to vaccinations and infection are known to be different based on age.

4. The vaccine will be distributed to kids through pediatricians, pharmacies, health clinics and more.

Once greenlighted, the pediatric doses of the vaccine will be sent to thousands of sites across the country, including more than 25,000 pediatricians’ offices, more than 100 children’s hospitals, tens of thousands of pharmacies and hundreds of school- and community-based clinics, the White House announced Oct. 20.

Within days, more than 15 million doses are set to begin distribution across the country.

Though the White House has purchased 65 million Pfizer pediatric vaccine doses — more than enough to fully vaccine all children ages 5 to 11 in America — the first launch will dole out doses in waves based on states’ eligible population of kids. Shipments can be recalibrated based on shifting demand.

The distribution plan will also include a national public education campaign to “reach parents and guardians with accurate and culturally-responsive information about the vaccine and the risks that COVID-19 poses to children,” according to the White House.

White House officials told the nation’s governors on Oct. 12 that it has enough pediatric doses on hand for the 28 million children ages 5 through 11 expected to become eligible once the CDC gives the green light.

To troubleshoot any confusion in distribution, federal health officials are outlining a new color-coded cap system for each formulation of the vaccine, though still “preliminary.” Purple-capped vials will contain doses for adult and older adolescents, a chart offered to states said; orange-capped vials will contain doses for kids aged 5 to 11.

5. Families need to remain vigilant against COVID-19.

While there is a light at the end of the tunnel with younger kids having access to a COVID-19 vaccine, families need to stay vigilant against the virus as they wait for authorization.

Unvaccinated children can not only become ill from COVID-19 themselves, but they can also spread the virus to more vulnerable family members and other adults with whom they interact.

Both the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend universal mask-wearing in schools to help slow the spread of COVID-19.

Experts said that in addition to unvaccinated children wearing face masks, parents and siblings who are vaccinated should also continue to wear face masks indoors because of the rates of breakthrough infections in the U.S.

Families should also continue to follow other safety guidelines shared throughout the pandemic, including social distancing and hand-washing.

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