United States: Anti-Covid vaccination obligation extends to soldiers and teachers

Published on : 08/23/2021 – 19:33

Mandatory vaccination against Covid-19 is gaining ground in the United States after the final approval of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, Monday, August 23, by the United States Medicines Agency (FDA). This vaccine, which had received emergency authorization since December 2020, is now fully approved for all people 16 years of age and over. It continues to be available to children and adolescents aged 12 to 15 under this conditional authorization, the FDA said.

This final approval will allow several institutions to impose compulsory vaccination on its members, while limiting fears of legal recourse. First visible consequence, the Pentagon announced in the wake that all members of the American armed forces should be vaccinated.

“Now that Pfizer’s vaccine has been approved, the ministry will issue a directive requiring all hired personnel to be vaccinated,” military spokesman John Kirby said on Monday.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio also responded by imposing mandatory vaccination on all education department employees. Nearly 150,000 employees will thus have to receive at least one dose of the vaccine against Covid-19 by September 27.

It will not be possible to choose to be tested every week instead.

“We know this will help make sure everyone is safe,” he told reporters.

“Hundreds of thousands of pages”

The full FDA clearance is based on clinical trials involving some 20,000 people 16 years of age and older who received the vaccine and 20,000 who received a placebo.

About 12,000 were followed for at least six months, says the agency.

“We have evaluated the scientific data and information included in hundreds of thousands of pages” and “conducted our own analysis of the safety and efficacy” of the vaccine, detailed Peter Marks, chief scientist at the FDA. He said the vaccine production process had also been verified, including through factory visits.

The authorization includes a warning about an increased risk of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, after vaccination, the US agency said. This risk is higher in young men, within seven days of the second injection.

Clinical tests for children

The chief of the FDA, Janet Woodcock, however, affirmed that the children of less than 12 years old should not yet be vaccinated with this vaccine. The American agency is indeed awaiting more clinical trial data for this age group.

Pfizer announced in March that it had started trials on thousands of children aged 6 months to 11 years which are currently continuing. If the results prove conclusive, Pfizer hopes to be the first to file an emergency authorization request for the vaccine for 5-11 year olds in September.

More than 200 million people, or nearly 61% of the US population, have received at least one dose of the vaccine – mostly serum from Pfizer / BioNTech.

Two other vaccines, those from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, are urgently authorized in the United States.

(With AFP)