The Food and Drug Administration cleared the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to be
administered to children ages 5 to 11 on October 29th. The Center for Disease Control
recommended that kids ages 5 to 11 receive the low dose vaccine on Tuesday.
The emergency use of the vaccine was authorized after an FDA advisory panel strongly
supported and recommended it on Tuesday, October 26th. The FDA’s acting
commissioner, Dr. Janet Woodcock, said in a statement “As a mother and a physician, I
know that parents, caregivers, school staff, and children have been waiting for today’s
authorization.” She also says that vaccinating young children will bring the US to
“returning to a sense of normalcy.” The recommendation was issued after a unanimous
decision by CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices supporting the use of
this vaccine on the age group. CDC director Rochelle Walensky issued the
recommendation.
Last week 8,300 kids aged 5 to 11 were hospitalized due to coronavirus and at least
170 have died. Children in this age group are among 9 percent of 40 percent of reported
pediatric Covid-19 cases in the United States overall. According to Dr. Fiona Havers, a
medical officer at the CDC, more than 5,000 unvaccinated minors who contracted
Covid-19 developed a serious complication called multisystem inflammatory syndrome.
The lower-dose formulation of Pfizer’s adult vaccine that will be used was found to be
90.7 percent effective at preventing Covid -19. The authorization was based on a study
of about 4,700 children ages 5 – 11. Millions of Families and Parents have been eagerly
waiting for this approval to protect their children.
Recent CDC data shows that 42 percent of children in the 5 to 11 age group have
antibodies from prior infection. A rare side effect of the Pfizer VACCINE IS that
generated discussion at Tuesday’s CDC meeting is myocarditis, a form of heart
inflammation. There have been 877 confirmed cases of myocarditis after receiving the
Pfizer or Moderna vaccines in people ages 30 and younger. The FDA’s acting
commissioner even said children face a much lower risk of severe outcomes. Dr. James
E.K Hildreth, the president of Meharry Medical College, criticized Pfizer for including few
minorities 5 to 11 years old’s in its clinical trial.