In the United States, about 28 million children aged 5 to 11 will soon be eligible for vaccinations against COVID-19. Plans are already underway to help them get these shots.
The FDA’s Independent Vaccine Advisory Board meets on Tuesday, October 26 USA (FDA). This meeting will discuss whether the Pfizer / BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine should be authorized for young children.
If authorized, this will be the first vaccine available for children of this age. The Pfizer vaccine is already approved for children 12-15 years old and approved for people aged 16 years and older and older.
If the FDA committee votes in favor, the FDA will accept the vaccination recommendation.
After which, on November 2 and 3, an independent advisory committee of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will meet and vote in favor of the recommendation. As a result, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walenski will decide whether to accept or change the committee’s recommendation.
Once Walenski approves, young children can immediately begin vaccinating against COVID-19.
Why do you need a baby vaccine
The pandemic affected not only the adult population but, unfortunately, also children. Almost 6.2 million children are known to have tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic. Nearly 131,000 more children have been diagnosed with COVID-19 in the past week alone, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
It should be noted that serious illnesses among children are rare – they account for less than 5% of hospitalizations and less than 0.025% of deaths. However, according to the CDC, in the first half of this year, this disease was among the top ten causes of death in children aged 5 to 14 years.
“COVID-19 has not been spared by children, even though they tolerate the disease better than adults. There were hundreds of children who lost their lives, thousands were hospitalized and their lives disrupted due to COVID-19, – said the chief surgeon of the United States, Dr. Vivek Murthy. – We want to protect our children. We want them to get their lives back.”
