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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave its formal approval Friday of COVID-19 vaccines for children ages 5-11.

The FDA’s approval comes three days after an advisory panel to the regulatory agency voted 17-0, with one abstention, to authorize an expansion of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine’s emergency use authorization to include kids 5-11.

Clinical data presented to the FDA found that the vaccine was nearly 91 percent effective at preventing the virus among children ages 5-11. Roughly 3,100 kids in that age group were included in the trial, which found no serious side effects among the vaccinated children.

“As a mother and a physician, I know that parents, caregivers, school staff, and children have been waiting for today’s authorization,” Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock said. “Vaccinating younger children against COVID-19 will bring us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy.”

The Pfizer vaccine will still be administered in two doses among children 5-11, but at one-third of the dose that has been administered to those ages 12 and up.

The vaccine’s use in young children will still require the approval of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an advisory panel for which is expected to consider clinical safety and efficacy data early this week.

In California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, the vaccine’s approval will face an additional hurdle in the form of the Western States Scientific Safety Review Workgroup.

The four-state group is on track to issue its own approval of COVID-19 vaccines for 5-11 year olds by Nov. 5 or 6.

COVID cases among those ages 5-11 make up 39% of cases in children, according to the CDC.

In addition, some 8,300 children ages 5-11 have been hospitalized with COVID-19 and 146 children in that age group have died due to the virus.

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13 Comments

  1. A voting member of a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee admitted Tuesday that whether or not Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine is safe for 5 to 11-year-old children won’t be known fully until it begins being administered.

    “We’re never gonna learn about how safe the vaccine is until we start giving it,” said panel member Dr. Eric Rubin during the hearing. “That’s just the way it goes.”

    https://townhall.com/tipsheet/scottmorefield/2021/10/26/fda-panel-member-were-never-gonna-learn-about-how-safe-the-vaccine-is-until-we-start-giving-it-n2598090

    Good luck!

  4. Politifact is a very, very, left leaning rag. It is part of the MSM propaganda arm of this administration. Come on Basement BobB, you can do better than that.

  5. @buklau,

    Vaccinated people are less like to get infected in the first place. Vaccination slows infection.

    Also we do vaccinate 5 – 11 year olds for the flu also.

  6. @Jake Waters,

    All the facts in the article were liked to the original sources from the FDA. You can go read the original material. No opinion. Just fact.

  7. Vaccinated people are no less likely to be carriers than unvaccinated. Vaccination supposedly simply lessens the symptoms and severity, supposedly. So the only benefit to getting vaccinated is to yourself as you can still spread it if vaccinated. If you are not vaccinated it is your own risk. You are no more contagious.

    BobB, I am still waiting for the list of companies that make it a requirement of employment to have a flu shot.

  9. “Vaccinated people are no less likely to be carriers than unvaccinated.”

    The above statement is true.

    Please name companies that requires a flu shot as a condition of employment. Expecially a non medical companies.

    I know you can use Google, go ahead and give it a whirl. Feel free to report back what you find.

    I would not want to accuse you of spreading misinformation.

  12. Parents need to do their due diligence. The government doesn’t have your best interests. For children without serious medical condition the danger for severe covid is so low as to be difficult to quantify. Do your research.

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