Pfizer: Three Doses of COVID-19 Vaccine 80% Effective Against Omicron Variant in Children Under 5
The company plans to submit the data to the Food and Drug Administration this week.
https://www.usnews.com/news/health-...e-against-omicron-variant-in-children-under-5
Pfizer on Monday reported that a third
COVID-19 vaccine dose in children under the age of 5 produced a “strong” immune response.
The company, along with its partner BioNTech, reported that the three-dose series for kids six months to 5 years old was 80% effective at preventing symptomatic infection during the omicron wave.
“Our COVID-19 vaccine has been studied in thousands of children and adolescents, and we are pleased that our formulation for the youngest children, which we carefully selected to be one-tenth of the dose strength for adults, was well tolerated and produced a strong immune response,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a
statement.
The company plans to submit the data to the Food and Drug Administration this week.
The development is likely a relief to many parents of kids in the age group, who have been strung along for months waiting to hear more about the shots as studies faced
multiple setbacks. It is the only age group remaining that doesn’t have access to the coronavirus vaccine.
Still, it’s likely that the majority of parents won’t get their kids the shots. A
survey from February found that 31% of parents of children in the age range will get their kid vaccinated right away if a vaccine is authorized.
The FDA last week
authorized a third vaccine dose for children as young as 5 years old, citing increasing infections among kids during the omicron wave and waning vaccine efficacy for its decision to expand the shots.
“While it has largely been the case that COVID-19 tends to be less severe in children than adults, the omicron wave has seen more kids getting sick with the disease and being hospitalized, and children may also experience longer term effects, even following initially mild disease,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said in a statement.