On Tuesday, Dr. Rochelle Paula Walensky, the Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approved the broad use of Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine in 5-11-year-olds, smoothing the way for doses to go into the arms of youngsters as early as November 3.
The CDC Director Walensky’s proclamation comes just hours after the CDC advisory panel members unanimously voted the move, saying the benefits of the jab outweigh the risks. Much of their deliberations stemmed from rare cases of inflammation of the heart, such as myocarditis, that have been associated with the jab, especially in young males.
Previously on Friday, the United States Food and Drug Administration approved the Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE jab for 5-11-year-olds, making it the first coronavirus dose for youngsters in America.
The US FDA approved a 10-mcg dose amount of Pfizer-made jab in kids ages 5-11 years, while the original dose amount given to people ages twelve and up is 30-mcg.
CDC Director said that they realize millions of parents of 5-11-years age bracket are avid to have their kids inoculated, and with this decision, they now have commended that around twenty-eight million young children get a COVID vaccine.
Today, I endorsed ACIP’s recommendation that children 5-11 yrs old should be vaccinated against #COVID19 w/ Pfizer-BioNTech pediatric vaccine. This expands vaccine recommendations to over 28M kids in US & now allows providers to begin vaccinating them. https://t.co/krsXbvsS2p https://t.co/xzgJTvOLWI
— Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH (@CDCDirector) November 3, 2021
Moreover, at the very beginning of the meeting, Rochelle Walensky said that children’s hospitalizations had increased during the last wave driven by the highly contagious Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2.
Vaccination Could Prevent Hospitalizations
Walensky added that the risk from coronavirus disease is too high and too damaging to our kids and much higher than for several other ailments for which they inoculate youngsters.
CDC Director said that closure of schools have had harmful social and emotional well-being impacts on kids. And children immunization has the power to help them change all of that. American leader Joe Biden described the sign-off as a critical moment in the fight against fatal COVID.
Furthermore, Biden said that the broad vaccination drive would grow in the upcoming days and weeks, and would be running at full strength during the week of 8th November. As a result, the parents of children in this age group would be able to bring their kids to several thousands of schools, doctor’s offices, and other locations to have their beloved youngsters protected against the COVID-19.
America’s national public health agency presented data showing that every million doses of the jab administered could avoid between 80-226 hospital admissions in 5-11-year-olds.
One of the committee members Dr. Beth Bell, said that she feels she has a responsibility, and we all have the responsibility to make COVID jab available to kids and their parents or guardians. Moreover, she said that we’ve the definitive evidence of the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine. Bell added that they’ve a favorable risk-benefit analysis, and they’ve several parents out there who genuinely are demanding and wishing to get their kids inoculated.
Source: Web
Pfizer/BioNTech stated their jab has proved to be almost 91 percent protective in a clinical trial of kids ages five to eleven years. in addition, Albert Bourla, Chief Executive Officer of Pfizer Inc., said that they’d transported vaccines to several states already over the weekend and Nov. 1.
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