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(CNN) --
Vaccine advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted Tuesday in favor of expanding the emergency use authorization of the Covid-19 vaccine from Modern to include children and adolescents, from 6 to 17 years old, since they said that it would offer more benefits than risks.
The 22-member FDA Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) voted "yes" in response to two questions about whether the benefits of the vaccine, when two 100-microgram doses are given to ages 12 to 17 years, and two 50-microgram doses for ages 6 to 11 years, outweigh their risks, based on the available scientific evidence.
Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective in children and youth, according to the FDA
The FDA, which generally follows the committee's decisions, will now decide whether to authorize the vaccine for emergency use in these age groups.
The Moderna vaccine is already licensed for adults.
"The questions are whether the data supports us voting for an emergency use authorization, and I would say that's probably true," said Dr. Archana Chatterjee, dean of the Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University and a member of the committee.
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“I support both of these ballot questions,” said member Dr. Hank Bernstein, a professor of pediatrics at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell.
“A third dose is likely to be indicated due to the evolving variants that will continue, as many people remain unvaccinated, even with the primary series,” but overall, “I think adding this vaccine, making it more available to families , it's good."
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Members of the VRBPAC are scheduled to meet again this Wednesday to consider amending Moderna's vaccine emergency use authorization to include even younger children, ages 6 months to 5 years.
They will also discuss modifying the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine authorization to include ages 6 months to 4 years.
FDAModern vaccine against covid-19
