The Food and Drug Administration approved on Monday the request from Pfizer and BioNTech to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to adolescents aged 12 to 15 in an emergency, allowing states to vaccinate middle school students before the fall.
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The two-dose vaccine is already approved for use in people ages 16 and older. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Vaccine Advisory Committee has scheduled a meeting Wednesday to review the plans for teens ages 12 to 15. If approved by the CDC as expected, it could be distributed to teens as early as this week.
The deputy Commissioner of the FDA, Dr. Janet Woodcock, said that our decision brings us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy and ending the pandemic. She assured parents that the agency «undertook a rigorous and thorough review of all available data» before granting approval for use to adolescents.
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The companies said at the end of March that the vaccine was found to be 100% effective in a clinical trial of more than 2,000 adolescents. They also said that the vaccine triggered a «strong» antibody response in children, surpassing those from the previous trial that was conducted in older adolescents and young adults. The side effects were generally consistent with those observed in adults, they added.
Vaccination of children is considered vital for ending the pandemic. The nation is unlikely to achieve herd immunity until children are vaccinated, say health officials and experts.
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The children make up about 20% of the total US population, according to government data. Between 70% and 85% of the US population needs to be vaccinated against COVID-19 to achieve herd immunity, experts say. Although most experts now say herd immunity seems increasingly unlikely as the disease variants spread.
Information source: cnbc.com
