Advisors to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States are set for a significant meeting on Tuesday (October 26) on whether to recommend the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine for children aged between 5 to 11. The experts have forecast that younger children will be eligible for the vaccine by early November.
The FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee will talk over whether to approve the vaccine. If authorised, it would be the prime Covid-19 vaccine for younger children, according to reports. The nation's top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, said some 28 million kids aged 5 to 11 in the US may be able to receive their Covid-19 vaccine in the first two weeks of November. In a press briefing, he said - "You never want to get ahead of the FDA in their regulatory decisions, nor do you want to get ahead of the CDC and their advisers on what the recommended would be." "But if you look at the data that's been made public and announced by the company, the data looked good as to the efficacy and the safety." Pfizer and its associate BioNTech said their vaccine is safe and 90.7 per cent effective against symptomatic Covid-19 in kids, the particular age group, according to a document posted on the FDA website on Monday.
Notably, Pfizer and BioNTech are applying FDA emergency use authorization of a 2-dose regimen of 10-microgram dose for children ages 5 to 11, which would be administered 3 weeks apart.
Pfizer claims its Covid-19 vaccine 90.7 pc effective in kids aged 5-11
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