The United States has taken another step toward vaccinating millions more children against COVID-19, after government advisers approved pediatric doses of Pfizer’s vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee unanimously approved, with one abstention, that the vaccine’s benefits to prevent COVID-19 in that age group outweigh any potential risks, including a heart-related side effect that has been very rare in adolescents and young adults receiving a much higher dose.
Although children are much less likely to suffer from severe cases of COVID-19 compared to adults, in the end many panelists decided that it is important to give parents the choice to protect their children, especially those at high risk of sick or those who live in places where other precautionary measures are not applied, such as the use of masks in schools.
“This is an age group that deserves and should have the opportunity to be vaccinated like any other,” said Dr. Amanda Cohn, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC for its acronym in English) and a member of the panel. .
The FDA is not required to follow the panel’s recommendation and is expected to make its own decision in the next few days.
If the FDA authorizes pediatric doses, there is still one step left: Next week the CDC must decide whether to recommend them and which children should receive them.
Full doses from Pfizer and its partner BioNTech are already recommended for everyone 12 years and older, but pediatricians and many parents cry out for protection for their young children.
The contagious delta variant has caused an alarming increase in pediatric infections, and families are frustrated by school quarantines and having to refuse sleepovers and other children’s activities in order to prevent infections.
In the 5 to 11-year-old group, there have been more than 8,300 hospitalizations – a third of which required intensive care – and almost 100 deaths in the United States.
States are preparing to carry out vaccinations, with only a third of the doses given to adolescents and adults, which will come in vials with orange caps to avoid confusion.
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