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The US regulatory body authorizes Pzifer and Moderna vaccines for children from six months

2022-06-17T16:40:17.454Z


The administration of the vials could begin next week, with a potential population of 20 million beneficiaries


Production of vials of the vaccine for children up to 5 years of age, at the Pzifer plant in Puurs (Belgium). AP

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized this Friday the emergency use of Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech's coronavirus vaccines in infants and children from six months of age.

Until now, the use of Moderna was limited to adults over 18 years of age and, with this license, it can be applied between six months and 17 years.

Pfizer's covered a wider range, since its emergency use was authorized for those over five years of age.

Now, after the latest decision by the regulator, it will be possible to be inoculated from six months and up to five years, a population estimated at around 20 million Americans.

In just 18 months since the first vaccines were launched, practically all age groups are theoretically covered against the coronavirus.

The regulator's decision will be followed by a vote by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC; federal health agency).

The group of experts that advises the CDC will meet this Friday to discuss the use of both vaccines in infants and children up to five and six years old.

A likely positive vote is expected over the weekend, so the administration could start next week.

Final approval will still take a few months.

The drug's regulatory agency stresses that the evaluation and safety analysis to which they have been subjected, the immune efficacy and the manufacturing data support the granting of the emergency administration permit.

"The Administration has determined that the known and potential benefits of the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines outweigh the known and potential risks in licensed pediatric populations," the FDA statement said.

The reluctance of parents to inoculate infants, who are less vulnerable to complications from the infection than other age groups, will be, according to experts, the main obstacle in this new phase of the vaccination campaign.

Pfizer's serum for children ages 5 to 11, for example, was given the green light in October, but only about 29% of that group is fully vaccinated.

The decision comes when the lineages of the omicron variant that caused a rebound weeks ago have entered a flat phase, with 3% of new cases in the country, in the average of the last 14 days, but also a slight increase in the number of hospitalizations (8%) and deaths (14%), a trend that seems to be a carbon copy of the one registered just a month ago, when positivity reached two digits and the number of deaths, only one, according to the daily calculation of

The New York Times

.

Epidemiologist Anthony Fauci, who chairs President Joe Biden's group of medical advisers, caught the coronavirus this week but is suffering only "mild symptoms" as he was fully vaccinated.

A campaign that hits rock bottom

Pfizer has said that two doses of its vaccine were only 28% effective in preventing disease in children, while three doses were effective in 80% of cases.

Moderna's vaccine was effective in 51% of cases in children between the ages of six months and two years, and 37% in those between the ages of two and five years.

However, Dr. Robert M. Califf, commissioner of the FDA, recalled in a statement: "As we have seen with older age groups, we hope that vaccines for younger children will provide protection against the most serious consequences of covid -19, such as hospitalization and death”.

The predisposition of the population to be immunized seems to have reached a ceiling since the first vial was administered, in January 2021. This cannot be due to the ease of access: in cities like New York, for example, any passer-by can receive a puncture, even those of reinforcement, in several metro stations in the city.

The federal Administration has made 10 million doses available to States, pharmacies and health centers in recent weeks, but the response has been discreet, according to data compiled by federal officials.

Only 2.5 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have been claimed, about half of what was available, and about 1.3 million doses from Moderna, a quarter of what was on offer.

Source: elparis

All life articles on 2022-06-17

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