Pfizer asked the U.S. government Thursday to allow use of its COVID-19 vaccine in children ages 5 to 11 in what would be a major expansion that could combat an alarming rise in serious infections in youngsters and help schools stay open.
If regulators give the go-ahead, reduced-dose kids’ shots could begin within a matter of weeks for the roughly 28 million U.S. children in that age group.
The Food and Drug Administration will have to decide if there is enough evidence that the shots are safe and will work in younger children as they do in teens and adults. An independent expert panel will publicly debate the evidence on Oct. 26.
This is a huge deal for parents and educators. Another major step to getting things back to “normal”. My hope is that vaccines for children 5 - 11 are approved and administered before Thanksgiving.
…and yet, Pfizer doesn’t mandate being vaccinated for their own employees.
Leaked internal documents suggest that Pfizer does not mandate coronavirus vaccination of its employees. Other companies meanwhile, are being mandated to vaccinate their employees forcefully.
From the beginning of their vaccine development? I’m not privy to Pfizer’s development plan but I’m sure some planning/research regarding the COVID vaccine for children has been going on since the beginning. But rightfully so, Pfizer and other companies prioritized developing a vaccine for the most vulnerable, eventually allowing for enough time to develop, test, and approve a vaccine for children.
They can’t walk and chew gum at the same time, but we should have faith in their doing this out of the virtuous goodness in their hearts. Seems legit. lol
And I hope not only that the shots are approved but that they are approved for medical rather than for political reasons.
It’s good that an independent panel will discuss this. Last time that happened was after Biden had recommended everyone get booster shots before they had been approved. Then the independent panel would not recommend that those in certain occupations get booster shots. They were overruled to be more in compliance with Biden’s recommendation.
As a dad of a pre-12, our family is glad to get my kid the vaccine. One of her best friends down the street just got covid last week. Luckily mostly mild symptoms but still scary.
