An advisory committee of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will vote later today on whether to recommend a vaccine against Covid-19 in children aged 5 to 11 that was approved for this age group last week by the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine was approved in the United States in May for children ages 12 to 15.
Here are some questions and answers in the case of the US to what parents need to know about their children’s vaccinations.
When will Covid-19 vaccines for children ages 5 to 11 be available in the US?
The vaccines are likely to be available as early as tomorrow Wednesday. The CDC director will make the final decision on whether the vaccine should be used in children after the CDC advisory committee gave the green light late tonight (US time).
Where will the vaccines be available?
Depending on the State, pediatricians, pharmacies and schools. Some states are setting up mass vaccination centers and mobile vaccination clinics to increase children’s access to vaccines.
Is the vaccine the same as that given to adults?
Yes, but in a smaller dose. Pfizer and BioNTech have requested approval for a 10 microgram dose of the vaccine, 1/3 of the dose given to people 12 years of age and older. The vaccine in children is still given in two doses, about three weeks apart.
What if my child is a small 5 year old or a big 11 year old? Do they have to take the dosage given?
The dose is based on age, not weight, according to Brittany Kmus, an epidemiologist and professor at the American University of Syracuse. “Vaccines differ from drugs in the dosing strategy and have more to do with the maturation of the immune system than with weight or metabolism,” he said.
It is safe;
Safety data from more than 3,000 children who received the vaccine in the Pfizer clinical trial involving 4,500 children were broadly comparable to those in children aged 16 to 25 years. The most common side effects in children included fever, headache and chills, which were generally reported less frequently and were milder than in children aged 12 to 15 years.
Both Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have been linked to rare cases of heart inflammation called myocarditis, especially in young men.
However, Pfizer points out that the incidence of myocarditis in the age group is likely to be lower than that seen in vaccinated people aged 12 to 15, in part because of the lower dose.
It has a result;
Pfizer and BioNTech announced last month that in their clinical trial their Covid-19 vaccine produced a strong immune response in children aged 5 to 11 years. The companies also said that the vaccine showed 90.7% efficacy in preventing Covid-19 in this age group.
If children are less likely to get seriously ill than Covid, why vaccinate them?
Vaccination of children is a public health tool for the prevention of infectious diseases, even those that do not have high mortality or morbidity rates in children. American girls are already being vaccinated against diseases that have similar or lower relative mortality rates in children, such as hepatitis A, chickenpox, rubella and rotavirus. Children can pass Covid-19 to other higher-risk groups even if they have no symptoms.
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