A doctor on the CDC’s advisory committee discusses his vote to approve COVID-19 vaccines for children under the age of five.
The U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s independent advisory panel voted to introduce the first COVID-19 vaccines for young children and preschoolers, paving the way for vaccines to begin next week.
The CDC’s expert panel began debating the two-dose Moderna and three-dose Pfizer vaccines on Friday and voted unanimously Saturday afternoon. This is one of the last steps missing for younger American children to receive the vaccines. Rochelle Walensky gave her final approval a few hours later.
“We know that millions of parents and caregivers are eager to vaccinate their young children, and with today’s decision, they can do so,” Dr. Brown said in a statement. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC.
The government is preparing for the start of injections early next week, with millions of doses ordered to be distributed to doctors, hospitals and network fitness clinics across the country. About 18 million young people will be eligible, about a year and a half later. The vaccines were first manufactured in the country for adults, who have been hardest hit by the pandemic.
While young people generally are not as unhealthy from COVID-19 as older youth and adults, their hospitalizations outweigh the wave of omicron and FDA advisors decided that the benefits of vaccination outweighed the minimal risks. Studies by Moderna and Pfizer showed that side effects, coupled with fever and fatigue, were generally minor.
“As we have noted with older age groups, we expect vaccines for young people to provide coverage against the more serious consequences of COVID-19, such as hospitalization and death,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said in a statement.
About 440 children under the age of five have died from COVID-19, according to federal data.
The Food and Drug Administration has already given its approval following the unanimous advice of its own panel for injections of Moderna and Pfizer for children from 6 months.
(Photo via Robert Michael/alliance photo Getty Images)
During a Senate hearing Thursday, Walensky said his team worked on the June 19 federal holiday weekend “because we sense the urgency of this for American parents. “year.
“So I think we want to protect young children, as well as protect everyone with the vaccine and, especially, protect the elderly,” he said.
The FDA has also legalized Moderna vaccines for school-age youth and adolescents; the CDC will review them next week. Pfizer injections were the option for those ages.
Biden’s management has planned the last remaining ineligible age group, urging states to prioritize high-volume sites like children’s hospitals and schedule appointments outside of normal work hours to make it easier for parents to vaccinate their children.
With fda emergency use authorization, brands can begin shipping vaccines nationwide.
Pfizer’s vaccine for children under the age of five accounts for one-tenth of an adult’s dose. Three injections are required, the first two 3 weeks apart and the last at least two months later.
Moderna is made up of two injections, which account for a quarter of its adult dose, given approximately 4 weeks apart for children under 6 years of age. The FDA also authorized a third dose, at least one month after the initial injection, for children who have immune situations that make them more vulnerable to serious illness.
In the tests, younger children developed high levels of anti-virus antibodies, similar to those seen in young adults, the FDA said. examine to give a reliable and accurate estimate of effectiveness, the firm said.
“Both vaccines were licensed with science and protection at the forefront of our minds,” Dr. Peter Marks, the FDA’s director of vaccines, said at a news conference Friday.
Marks said parents deserve to be comfortable with any of the vaccines and deserve to have their children vaccinated as soon as possible, rather than waiting until the fall when another variant of the virus might be circulating. He said changes would be made to vaccines to account for this. .
Melissa Marx, an assistant professor and epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, highlighted the importance of vaccines for children of all ages.
“Whatever the vaccine is from his physical care provider, pediatrician, that’s what I would give my son,” Marks said.
While any of the vaccines are intended for children up to 6 months of age, Moderna then plans to examine its vaccines for young children starting at 3 months of age. Pfizer has not finalized plans for injections in young babies. A dozen countries, China added, already vaccinate children under the age of five, along with other brands.
In the United States, it’s still unclear how many parents need to vaccinate their youngest children. By some estimates, 75% of all children have already been infected. And about 30 percent of children ages five to 11 have been vaccinated since Pfizer’s vaccines. they were opened to them last November.
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FDA officials pointed to those low rates and said the government is committed to vaccinating more older children and doing more with younger children.
“It’s a real tragedy, when you have so few side effects that prevent deaths and hospitalizations,” Califf said.
Dr. Beth Ebel, of the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle, said vaccines for young children would be obtained well through parents with young children in daycare, where outbreaks can put parents out of work, increasing monetary pressure.
“A lot of other people will be satisfied and a lot of grandparents too, because we miss young children who grew up when you couldn’t see them,” Ebel said.
This story reported from Cincinnati. The Associated Press contributed.