United States.- Pediatric doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine appear safe and effective for those under 5, federal health officials on Sunday, a key step towards the long-awaited decision to start vaccinating children. more little Americans.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA, for its acronym in English) published its analysis of the Pfizer vaccine days before a meeting on Wednesday, in which outside experts will vote on whether the vaccine is ready for the 18 million babies , toddlers and preschoolers in the country, or not.
Children under the age of 5 are the only group not yet eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in the United States.
Late last week, the FDA published a similar analysis of Moderna’s vaccines for children under 6 years of age.
Should regulators approve one or both companies’ vaccines, they could start rolling out as early as next week, with drugmakers poised to quickly ship whatever doses the government orders.
Parents have been pressing federal authorities for months to give them a chance to protect their youngest children at a time when more adults stop wearing masks and abandon other public health precautions.
Although only about 3% of COVID-19 cases in the country occur in children between the ages of 6 months and 4 years, the rates of hospitalizations and deaths in that group are higher than in older children, according to the analysis of the FDA, one of the reasons experts have said it is important to offer protection to the little ones.
The FDA indicated that children who received Pfizer’s vaccines during a study developed high levels of studies that are expected to protect them from the coronavirus. It is the basic threshold necessary to obtain authorization from the agency. But further tests revealed key differences, with better results for Pfizer.
Pfizer’s vaccine, given in a series of three injections, seemed 80% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19, although the estimate is based on just 10 diagnosed cases among study participants. The number could change as the Pfizer trial continues.
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Moderna’s two-dose vaccine was only 40% and 50% effective in preventing mild infections, although the two companies’ vaccines were tested during different times of the pandemic, when different variants circulated. Moderna has started testing a booster for young children.
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