Breakthrough in the American vaccination campaign, and perhaps soon also in the European and Italian ones. According to what the Washington Post writes, the Food and Drug Administration (the equivalent of the European EMA) has authorized the Pfizer vaccine in the US for the 12-15 age group. The experimentation on adolescents therefore gave positive results and demonstrated that the vaccine is at least as effective in that age group as much as it is in adults. The priority so far has been to reach the elderly, frail and adults as much as possible, but the possibility of administering the serum also to the youngest will certainly further accelerate the campaign, since vaccinating the youngest is also the key to increasing the level of herd immunity and reduce the number of hospitalizations and deaths. The FDA's approval now opens the doors wide to millions of other Americans, after the numbers speak of success in these first few months: 114 million Americans have already received both doses, equal to 35% of the population.
In Italy, on the other hand, less than 15% of the population has been immunized, with herd immunity set at around 80% and expected in early autumn. “But two important steps – commented the extraordinary commissioner for the emergency, General Francesco Paolo Figliuolo – are also the previous months, when we will be able to have 60 and 70 percent of the vaccinated. The aim is to obtain between 23 and 25 million doses by the end of June ”. In Europe it is still too early to think about vaccinating adolescents, but in the meantime the EMA is also evaluating the efficacy and safety by Pfizer: in all likelihood, along the lines of what has already been expressed by the FDA, there will also be the green light in Europe for the administration of the anti-Covid serum to the younger age groups. The outcome of the evaluation, according to the European Medicines Agency, is "expected in June unless additional information is needed".
