Doctors and health workers in New York can start vaccinating the youngest children for COVID-19 after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and state Department of Health approved vaccines for children from 6 months to under 5 years old.

Dr. Neal Smoller, a pharmacist and the owner of Village Apothecary in Woodstock, has worked feverishly on the front lines to get people in the community vaccinated over the past 18 months.

"A lot of people have been really waiting for this moment to kind of protect the last bit of their family against COVID, and it’s a really great moment," Smoller said. "They can take a breath and really feel safe again."

Smoller and the team at Village Apothecary have put more than 60,000 doses of the vaccine in arms since January of 2021. Now he’s looking forward to vaccinating the youngest members of the community. 

"It’s just been this nonstop train that’s been running for two years now, and it just finally comes to rest here with the youngest kids," said Smoller.

On Saturday, the CDC endorsed both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines for children aged 6 months to under 5 years old, expanding eligibility for an additional 20 million children nationwide.

Both vaccines are significantly smaller than the dose given to adults and 5 to 11-year-olds.

"For me, it is marking the end of all of the work that we’ve done. Now we can finally immunize the 'youngins,' the most vulnerable population," said Smoller.

In accordance with the PREP Act, pharmacists like Smoller won’t be able to vaccinate the youngest children in the group.

"Pharmacies in New York can only administer vaccines to ages 3 and 4," said Smoller.

He doesn't think there will be a huge rush of parents getting their children vaccinated based on the low rates of vaccine acceptance in the 5 to 11 age group.

"A lot of the youngins have caught omicron recently, so now they’re gonna be waiting three, four months. So even though the vaccine is here, they just got sick, so they have a couple of months before they’re recommended to get the dose," Smoller said.

Despite that hesitancy or delay, he is confident in the latest vaccine.

"This is, again, one of the most exceptionally safe vaccines ever developed, and that trend will continue with this group. And I don’t believe that based on the available data, that the children in this age group have to be concerned with any of the stuff that teen boys have to be worried about with the myocarditis," Smoller said.

He and the team in Woodstock have worked tirelessly to bust COVID through vaccinations, education and testing. Now he sees this as the final piece of the puzzle.

They will also be wrapping up their testing program in school districts across the Hudson Valley this Friday. So far, the team has administered over 52,000 tests in school districts since the start of the program.

"For me, it’s just a big weight off my shoulders. I feel like the work is officially done now," Smoller said.