Ari Blank got a comforting hand-squeeze from his mom in May as he was vaccinated against COVID-19 in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. This week, the Food and Drug Administration authorized the use of Pfizer’s vaccine in even younger kids — ages 5 to 11.
Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images
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Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images
Ari Blank got a comforting hand-squeeze from his mom in May as he was vaccinated against COVID-19 in Bloomfield Hills, Mich. This week, the Food and Drug Administration authorized the use of Pfizer’s vaccine in even younger kids — ages 5 to 11.
Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images
The Food and Drug Administration has authorized a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. This lower-dose formulation of the companies’ adult vaccine was found to be safe and 90.7% effective in preventing COVID-19.
The agency acted Friday after a panel of independent scientists advising the FDA strongly supported the authorization on Tuesday. The FDA says the emergency use authorization is based on a study of approximately 4,700 children ages 5 to 11.
“As a mother and a physician, I know that parents, caregivers, school staff, and children have been waiting for today’s authorization. Vaccinating younger children against COVID-19 will bring us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy,” said the FDA’s acting commissioner, Dr. Janet Woodcock, in a statement.
She went on to assure parents that the agency had rigorously evaluated the data and “this vaccine meets our high standards.”
The next step in the process before the vaccine can be released to pediatricians, pharmacies and other distribution points will be a meeting of an advisory panel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention next Tuesday.
Depending on the outcome of that committee’s deliberations, the CDC’s director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, would then have the final say on whether the vaccine can be used and in what circumstances.
Once Walensky weighs in, children in this age group could, conceivably, begin to receive their first shot in early November.
A dose of the Pfizer vaccine for young children contains one-third the amount of active ingredient used in the vaccine for those 12 years …….