10/27/21 - A Panel of Health Advisers Endorse Kid-Sized COVID Vaccine

FDA Advisers Back Pfizer’s COVID-19 Vaccine for Young Kids.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A panel of U.S. health advisers on Tuesday endorsed kid-size doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, moving the U.S. closer to beginning vaccinations in children ages 5 to 11.

A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted unanimously with one abstention that the vaccine’s benefits in preventing COVID-19 in that age group outweigh any potential risks — including a heart-related side effect that’s been very rare in teens and young adults who get a much higher dose.

The FDA isn’t bound by the panel’s recommendation and is expected to make its own decision within days.

If the FDA authorizes the kid-size doses, there’s still another step: Next week, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will have to decide whether to recommend the shots and which youngsters should get them.

While children are at lower risk of severe COVID-19 than older people, 5- to 11-year-olds still have faced substantial illness — including over 8,300 hospitalizations reported, about a third requiring intensive care, and nearly 100 deaths.

The dose for young children is just one-third of the Pfizer shot already recommended for everyone 12 and older. Moderna also is studying its vaccine for young children.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has directed the state of Michigan to expedite the ordering of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for kids ages 5-11 so that it will be quickly available if the federal government gives it the green light.

Her directive Tuesday came the same day an advisory committee to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration endorsed the kid-size doses.

The FDA is expected to authorize the shots within days, followed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention next week.

The governor called the pending authorization a “game-changer” that will protect kids as they attend school, participate in extracurricular activities, and see friends and family.

The state, which has 825,000 5- to 11-year-olds, has pre-ordered 287,000 doses of the pediatric vaccine.