Pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine Looks Effective in Children 5-11
Pfizer released data from studies showing its vaccine is safe and 91% effective at preventing symptomatic infections in children 5 to 11-year-olds
Late Friday, the United States federal health regulators said that kid-size shots of Pfizer coronavirus vaccine appear highly effective to avert symptomatic infections in elementary school kids and caused no unexpected safety concerns, as the United States weighs starting vaccinations in youngsters. Moreover, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) posted its analysis of statistics of Pfizer before the public meeting next week to debate whether the doses are ready for the approximately twenty-eight million American kids ages five to eleven.
The drug agency will ask a panel of outside coronavirus vaccine experts to vote on that question. Moreover, the scientists concluded in their analysis that in almost every scenario, the benefit of the vaccine for averting severe illness, hospitalizations, and death from coronavirus would outweigh any possible severe side effects in kids. However, the agency will raise that question in front of its panel of independent advisers next Tuesday. If the FDA approves the doses, the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) will make further approvals on who should receive them the initial week of November.
We began posting materials for the next VRBPAC meeting, where the committee will discuss amending the Pfizer-BioNTech’s EUA for administration of their COVID-19 vaccine to children 5 through 11. https://t.co/FYUnFPFngv
Two-dose Pfizer Shot was Almost 91% Effective at Preventing Symptomatic Infection in Young Children
Children could start vaccinations early in November – with the first children in line fully protected against the virus by December end. Full-strength Pfizer doses are already recommended for anyone twelve or older, but pediatricians and several parents are eagerly awaiting vaccination for younger kids to stem infections from the extra-transmittable delta variant and help keep children safe in school. Earlier in the day, the FDA review affirmed results from Pfizer showing the two-dose vaccine was approximately ninety-one percent effective at averting symptomatic infection in young kids.
Researchers calculated the data based on sixteen coronavirus cases in young children given dummy doses versus three cases among vaccinated kids. They observed no severe illness among those children, but the inoculated ones had more minor symptoms than their unvaccinated counterparts. The researchers collected most of the study in the United States during August and September, when the more contagious delta variant had become the dominant coronavirus strain. Luckily, the FDA review didn’t find any new or unexpected side effects. While those that did occur mostly consisted of fever, achiness, or sore arms.
On the other side, FDA scientists noted that the study was not enough to spot extremely rare side effects like myocarditis, a type of heart inflammation that usually occurs after the second shot. So the agency used statistical modeling of cases to foresee how several hospitalizations and deaths from coronavirus the vaccine would prevent versus the number of possible heart side effects it might cause.
Biden Government Purchased Enough Kid-size Doses
Only when the COVID-19 cases were extremely low at the pandemic start could the vaccine cause more hospitalizations than it would prevent. However, overall, officials concluded that the productive benefits of the vaccine would clearly outweigh its risks. According to the CDC, while children run a lower risk of hospitalizations or death than older Americans, coronavirus killed over six hundred and thirty Americans eighteen and under.
Pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine Looks Effective in Children 5-11 Source: Web
The American Academy of Pediatrics says that approximately 6.2 million children were infected with the COVID-19, over 1.1 million as the delta strain surged in the past six weeks. The Biden government acquired enough kid-size shots – in special orange-capped vessels to differentiate them from adult vaccine – for the country’s five- to eleven-year-old kids. After the clearance of the vaccine in the sense of efficacy, the administration will ship millions of shots, along with kid-size needles across the country. Over twenty-five thousand pediatricians and primary care providers have already signed up to get the doses into little arms.
