U.S. health authorities granted final approval to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 on Tuesday, marking a major expansion of the nation’s vaccination campaign.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA for its acronym in English) has already authorized the vaccine for children of those ages, in doses that are only a third of the amount applied to adolescents and adults. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are in charge of recommending who should receive the vaccines authorized by the FDA.
“It will allow parents to end months of agonizing concern for their children, and reduce the extent to which children spread the virus to others.”
President Joe Biden
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The announcement by CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky came hours after an advisory panel unanimously decided that Pfizer vaccines should be approved for the 28 million children of that age group in the country.
The decision represents the first opportunity for Americans under the age of 12 to receive the strong protection provided by a COVID-19 vaccine.
“As a mother, I encourage concerned parents to speak with their pediatrician, school nurse or local pharmacist to learn more about the vaccine and the importance of getting their children vaccinated,” Walensky said Tuesday night in a statement.
In comments made hours earlier, Walensky said that although the risk of developing severe symptoms or dying from the disease is lower in children than in adults, it is real, and that COVID-19 has had a profound social, educational impact. and children’s mental health, including increasing learning disparities.
“There are kids in second grade who have never had a normal school year,” Walensky said. “Pediatric vaccination has the power to help us change all that.”
President Joe Biden said the decision was a “turning point.”
“It will allow parents to end months of agonizing concern for their children, and reduce the extent to which children spread the virus to others,” the president said in a statement. “It is an important step for our nation in our fight to defeat the virus.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics welcomed the decision as its members prepare to begin administering the first doses, which, according to the CDC, could begin “as soon as possible.” Children ages 5 to 11 will receive two low doses, three weeks apart, of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech, the same schedule that other demographics have had, but using a smaller needle.
Over the weekend, Pfizer began shipping millions of doses to states, doctors’ offices and pharmacies, in vials with orange caps to avoid confusion with adult vaccine doses with purple caps.
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