Vaccines

Some Canadian parents are making the trek into Montana to get their young children vaccinated against COVID-19.

There are a little more than 62,000 children younger than 5 years old statewide, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. While Montana health officials expect more vaccines for kids in that age group to be ordered in the coming weeks, demand could be lower compared to older children.

New Jersey-based Tonix Pharmaceuticals expects to employ around 120 people at the new facility in Ravalli County.

Montana state health department spokesperson Jon Ebelt says the state is ordering vaccines in anticipation of the approval, but didn’t say how many. He says providers could receive the vaccines by June 21, which is the earliest they could be administered following approval.

Montana’s governor pushed the state’s health workers to seek religious exemptions to a federal mandate to be vaccinated against covid, but the number who have done so is unknown.

Medical and nursing groups sued last year saying the law jeopardizes their work.

Gov. Greg Gianforte is urging unvaccinated health care workers to consider using religious and medical exemptions in order to meet Monday's federal vaccine mandate deadline. He says health care workers should evaluate all their options.

A University of Montana economist estimates $35 million has been spent in the state caring for preventable COVID-19 hospitalizations among the unvaccinated.

Lawmakers in Montana and Wyoming praised the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling Thursday blocking a federal vaccine mandate for private businesses – but some say the court should have gone further and also blocked the vaccine mandate for health care workers.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wednesday gave the final approval for kids 12 to 15 years old to receive a Pfizer COVID-19 booster shot. The move comes as a record number of children in the U.S. are hospitalized for COVID.