Covid-19: in the United States, the vaccine against Pfizer-BioNTech authorized for children aged 5 to 11

Published on : 10/29/2021 – 22:53

The United States should soon launch a new vaccination campaign against Covid-19 for children. Authorities on Friday, October 29, authorized Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine for children aged 5 to 11, or 28 million children in the country.

This emergency clearance from the US Medicines Agency (FDA) was granted after careful review of the results of clinical trials conducted by Pfizer on several thousand children.

“As a mother and physician, I know that parents, caregivers, teachers and children have been eagerly awaiting this clearance,” Janet Woodcock, acting commissioner of the FDA, said in a statement.

“Vaccinating young children against Covid-19 is an additional step towards a return to normalcy,” she insisted.

On Tuesday, a committee of independent experts met, and after a day of discussions, was in favor of immunization of 5-11 year olds with this vaccine. According to clinical trials, the remedy has been shown to be 90.7% effective in preventing symptomatic forms of the disease in this age group.

Before the injections begin, a committee of experts from the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) is in turn to meet early next week to deliver its opinion. This federal public health agency will then publish its recommendations, the final step in the process.

A suitable dosage

The recommendations of the FDA are often referred to around the world. The European Medicines Agency is also reviewing an application for authorization of Pfizer’s vaccine for this age group.

The vaccine dosage was adjusted to 10 micrograms per injection (two in number, administered three weeks apart), compared to 30 micrograms for the older groups.

The caps of the vials intended for children will be orange, and thus easily recognizable compared to the purple caps of the vials for the older age groups.

On Thursday, Pfizer also announced that the US government had purchased 50 million additional doses for children, which will be delivered from April 2022. In total, the United States has purchased 600 million doses.

White House pandemic coordinator Jeff Zients said on Wednesday the government stood ready, as soon as FDA clearance was announced, to “immediately send millions of doses” to all corners of the country, “to tens of thousands of pediatricians, family doctors, children’s hospitals, health centers, rural clinics and pharmacies.”

It will still be necessary to convince. According to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll at the end of September, about a third of parents said they would vaccinate their child as soon as possible, another third that they would wait before making a decision, and a quarter that they would not. vaccinate.

The health authorities wished to recall Friday that the children were not spared by the pandemic.

In children aged 5 to 11, more than 1.9 million cases of Covid-19 have been recorded since the start of the pandemic in the United States, more than 8,300 hospitalizations, and around 100 deaths, they said. underline.

With AFP