The virus runs among children and Pfizer accelerates the green light for the vaccine for the little ones. The US pharmaceutical company, together with BioNTech, announced that it has applied for emergency authorization from the Food and Drug administration for its Vaccine against Covid-19 for i children under 5: the last age range yet to be discovered. If approved, it would be the first vaccine in the United States for this age group.
The request was also made at the urging of regulators and the Biden administration. The FDA announced a Feb. 15 meeting of its advisory committee to discuss the request. Therefore, the vaccine for the little ones could arrive in the US as early as the end of February and the beginning of March.
As regards the vaccine intended for children aged 6 months to 5 years, a dose equal to one tenth of that used for adults will be used and the cycle will initially include two inoculations. For the over 12s, the dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is 30 micrograms of vaccine, for children aged 5 to 11 it is 10 micrograms while the dose for the youngest is 3 micrograms.
In the meantime, the two pharmaceutical companies will continue to test the efficacy of three doses of the same vaccine 8 weeks after the second. That's because, according to a source at the Washington Post, just two shots wouldn't induce one immune response sufficient in the age group between 2 and I 4 years. Data from the booster study is expected in March.
Pediatric infections and hospitalizations in the USA
Since the beginning of the health crisis, more than 11 million children have tested positive for Covid-19 in the US, with children under 4 accounting for more than 1,6 million of these cases. A figure that doubled with the spread of the Omicron variant, exceeding 3% of hospitalizations in January.
And for this reason Pfizer runs on the vaccine even for the little ones. “As hospitalizations of children under 5 due to Covid have soared, our joint goal with the FDA is to prepare for future spikes related to the presence of variants and provide parents with an option to help protect children. their children from this virus,” he commented Albert Borla, president and chief executive officer, Pfizer.
But everything will depend on the population and in this case on the parents. The FDA cleared the companies' vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 last November, but its use remains significantly lower than in the general population. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 21,6 percent of children ages 5 to 11 are fully vaccinated.
Covid under 5 vaccine: when will it arrive in Italy?
Even in our country there has been a surge in pediatric cases. According to Health Undersecretary Andrea Costa, the serum for the little ones could arrive in Italy as early as spring. Once approved by the US body, it will then be submitted to the experts of the EMA and the Italian regulatory body.
