All school-age children should be vaccinated with Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. This is the question being posed Tuesday by an influential government advisory panel.
Food and Drug Administration approved emergency use of kid-sized doses for children aged 5-11 years old. Before widespread vaccinations can be started in this age group, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must also approve.
The CDC’s advisors are weighing the benefits to each child as they consider whether to recommend shots for 28 million more kids or for only those who are most at risk of serious illness. The final decision will be made by Dr. Rochelle Walensky (CDC director).
Walensky stated Tuesday that today was a significant day in the history of the pandemic.
She stated that while severe diseases and death are less common in children under age five than in adults, they are still possible. COVID-19, she said, has had a significant social, mental, and educational impact on young people, as well as widening the gap in learning.
Walensky stated that there are many children in second grade who have never had a normal school year. “Pediatric vaccination can help us change all that.”
Pfizer is already packing and shipping millions of doses to the states and pharmacies.
Hospitalized children are often treated by doctors who hope that parents will embrace Pfizer’s Kid Shots. They’re safer than gambling and can help prevent a child from contracting the coronavirus infection.
“I’ve seen a lot of children in this age range that have been seriously ill,” Dr. Matthew Linam, an infectious diseases specialist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. “The risk for serious infection in this population is still very real.”
According to government data, there have been over 8,300 children hospitalized between 5 and 11. About a third of these kids required intensive care. At least 94 deaths have been recorded by the CDC in this age group.
While the U.S. has experienced a decline in COVID-19-related cases, experts are concerned about an increase in holiday travel and the possibility of the coronavirus spreading indoors.
Pfizer’s child shots contain one-third of the vaccine dose used to vavacinate millions of people aged 12 and over. The 3-week-olds (ages 5 to 11) will get two shots. They will be given the same schedule as everyone else, but with a smaller dose and a smaller needle.
The effectiveness of the kid-sized vaccine in preventing symptoms like COVID-19 was found to be nearly 91% according to a study of 2,268 children. This is based on 16 diagnostics from kids who received dummy shots, compared with three who had the real vaccine.
In concluding that shots are safe, the FDA looked at more children. Children younger than 15 years old experienced fewer or similar reactions to the shots, such as fever, sore arms and achiness. This is in contrast to teens or young adults who experience more severe reactions.
The study was not large enough to detect rare side effects such as heart inflammation, which can sometimes occur after the second dose of full-strength vaccine, mostly in teenage boys and young men. The FDA ruled that the vaccine’s benefits outweighed the risk that smaller doses might cause complications in younger children.
After its own advisors had struggled to determine whether every child in the world needed a vaccine, Tuesday’s deliberations were also dominated by this question. COVID-19 is more common in young children who are admitted to hospital. However, otherwise healthy children can become seriously ill.
Many parents and pediatricians have called for protection for their children so that they can continue to enjoy normal childhood activities without putting themselves at risk or threatening the health of others.
