Child COVID-19 vaccines get inexperienced gentle from FDA advisors

A nurse gives a boy a dose of the Pfizer vaccine at a COVID-19 vaccine clinic in Florida on the day before classes begin for the 2021-22 school year.

Enlarge / A nurse offers a boy a dose of the Pfizer vaccine at a COVID-19 vaccine clinic in Florida on the day earlier than lessons start for the 2021-22 college yr. (credit score: Getty | Paul Hennessy)

A panel of unbiased medical specialists advising the Meals and Drug Administration voted 17 to 0 (with one abstention) this afternoon in favor of authorizing the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to be used in kids ages 5 to 11 years outdated.

The vote is a key step towards the primary pediatric COVID-19 vaccine within the US. Subsequent, the FDA might want to log off on the advice from the advisory panel—the Vaccines and Associated Organic Merchandise Advisory Committee (VRBPAC)—and subject an emergency use authorization for the 5-to-11 age group. That FDA authorization is anticipated inside days. As soon as that happens, the federal authorities will start delivery pediatric doses of the vaccine to states for distribution at clinics, pharmacies, and pediatricians’ workplaces.

However earlier than doses can go into any little arms, a panel of unbiased specialists for the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention can even have to weigh in. That panel—the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)—is scheduled to satisfy November 2 and three. If ACIP votes in favor of recommending use of the vaccine in kids ages 5 to 11, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky might want to log off on the committee’s advice. That will possible occur rapidly, and after that, vaccinations can start.

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