The United States authorizes the use of the Pfizer vaccine for children between 5 and 11 years old
On Friday, the United States approved the use of the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine against COVID-19 for children aged 5 to 11 years, opening the way for the imminent launch of a key phase of the vaccination campaign, which includes about 28 million children in the country.
The US Medicines Agency (FDA) granted this emergency license after a careful review of the results of clinical trials conducted by Pfizer on thousands of children.
"As a mother and physician, I know that parents, caregivers, teachers and children are eagerly awaiting this permission," Acting Agency Commissioner Janet Woodcock said, stressing that "vaccinating young children against COVID-19 is an additional step toward returning to normalcy."
On Tuesday, American experts voted in favor of children aged 5 to 11 receiving the Pfizer vaccine against the Corona virus.
The opinion of these experts constitutes an essential station in the licensing mechanism in the United States, as the US Food and Drug Administration rarely violates it. Since the management vote was in line with the advisory committee's opinion, the vaccine will become available to children of this age group.
The advisory panel includes independent scientists (infectious disease experts, immunologists, pediatricians...) and evaluated data collected by Pfizer and health authorities.
At the end of the conversations held by the committee and broadcast live on the Internet, its members voted in favor of the vaccination of children between the ages of 5 and 11 years, considering that the benefits outweigh the risks (17 voted in favor of vaccinating children and one member abstained).
Allowing children to be vaccinated is supposed to reassure a large number of parents who are worried, especially about students returning to school.
More than 1.9 million cases of Covid-19 have been recorded among children aged 5-11 years since the outbreak of the epidemic in the United States, and more than 8,300 cases have been hospitalized, and nearly a hundred children have died.
To support the license application, Pfizer presented results of a clinical trial that demonstrated a 90.7 percent efficacy of its vaccine for preventing symptomatic types of disease in children ages 5 to 11.
The titer was set at 10 micrograms per injection (to be given in two doses three weeks apart), compared to 30 micrograms for the older groups.
Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the committee, expressed his satisfaction that the caliber for children is lower compared to adults.
However, many experts considered it difficult to be certain about this issue, and stressed the need to monitor the data once the vaccination campaign begins.
Among the 3,000 children who received the vaccine during clinical trials, no cases of myocarditis were recorded. Experts believe that this side effect should be more rare in young children than in teenagers, as the small caliber helps.
After the green light from the US Drug Agency, a committee of experts from the Center for Disease Prevention and Control will meet on the second and third of November on the subject, and this federal body will then publish its recommendations on arrangements for dosing.