The CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States) approved this Saturday (18) the recommendation of vaccination against Covid-19 for children aged six months and older. Thus, the new stage of immunization can start next week in the US.
The CDC experts’ vote was 12-0 in favor of the measure. Following the panel’s decision, the recommendation was confirmed by CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.
“We know that millions of parents and caregivers are eager to vaccinate their young children, and with today’s decision, they can,” Walensky said in a statement.
The CDC’s confirmation came after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday authorized Moderna’s vaccine for children between six months and five years, and Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine for children. aged between six months and four years. Pfizer’s vaccine is already authorized in the US for children over the age of five.
“This infection kills children and we have an opportunity to stop it,” Beth Bell, one of the panel’s doctors, said after the vote. “Here’s an opportunity to stop a known risk.”
The administration of US President Joe Biden plans to begin vaccinating age groups under five as early as next week.
While many parents in the United States are eager to vaccinate their children, it is unclear how strong the demand for doses will be. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was authorized for children ages five to 11 in October, but only about 29% of people in that age group have been fully vaccinated so far, according to federal data.
According to the recommendations of the American agency, the Moderna vaccine will adopt a two-dose schedule, with an interval of one month, for children from six months. For immunocompromised patients, a third dose may be chosen at least one month after the second dose.
The injections contain 25 micrograms of the immunizer, a quarter of the level adults receive. The effectiveness rate was 51% in preventing omicron infection for children aged six months to two years and about 37% effective for those aged between two and five years.​
The Pfizer-Biontech vaccine will be administered in a cycle of three injections: two shots three weeks apart and the third two months after the second, each with 3 micrograms of the immunizer, one-tenth the level adults receive. The effectiveness rate in preventing omicron infection was 75% in children aged six months to two years, and 82% in children aged between two and four years.
While Pfizer-Biontech’s vaccine appears to be more effective than Moderna’s in children under five, the FDA stressed that the data is preliminary and that it’s crucial that parents who opt for it make sure their children get the third dose. The two-dose effectiveness rate was only 14% for children under two years old, and 33% in the two- to four-year-old group.
The most common side effects of vaccines were pain at the injection site, irritability and crying, loss of appetite and drowsiness, according to the FDA. There were no cases of myocarditis, a type of inflammation of the heart, in clinical trials of either vaccine.
In addition to the United States, at least eight countries already vaccinate children under five against Covid using the Soberana 02 vaccines, from the Sinopharm laboratory, and Coronavac, which in Brazil is under analysis by Anvisa for application in children from three years of age. .
In Brazil
In Brazil, vaccination for this group is not yet approved, and children’s hospitals are already registering an increase in emergency room and hospitalization due to Covid. Currently, the age group between zero and five years has become the one with the highest risk of hospitalization for the disease, except for the population over 60 years, according to an analysis by Fiocruz.
In November, this group did not represent 5% of the weekly cases of Srag (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndromes) by Covid-19 in the country. From April onwards, he accounted for up to 15% of registrations.
In the age group between five and 11 years, for which the vaccine has been released since the beginning of the year, today there are just over 30% of children with both doses in Brazil.
