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Five to 11-year-olds are a step closer to being eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine in the United States.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Federal health officials are expected to sign off soon on a vaccine for this age group. That authorization passed its first hurdle October 26 when an advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration gave their thumbs-up to make Pfizer\u2019s and its German partner BioNTech\u2019s vaccine available to 5- to 11-year-olds.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The decision to endorse emergency use authorization of the vaccine followed an extensive discussion among experts on the advisory panel, who were tasked with determining if the vaccine\u2019s benefits outweigh the risks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Many panelists, for instance, expressed concerns about myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle. Myocarditis has been an uncommon, but potentially serious, side effect of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines<\/a>, primarily in male adolescents and young adults (SN: 6\/23\/21<\/em>). Other experts emphasized that while children are less likely to develop severe COVID-19 than adults, kids aren\u2019t spared from the worst of the disease.\u00a0<\/p>\n For Amanda Cohn, chief medical officer for vaccine policy at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the answer is clear: the benefits outweigh the risks. \u201cWe don\u2019t want children to be dying of COVID, even if it is far fewer children than adults,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd we don\u2019t want them in the ICU.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n FDA Advisory Committee member and pediatrician Jay Portnoy said at the meeting that Children\u2019s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., where he works, has been full for the last month or so, and many of the admitted kids have COVID-19. \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to being able to actually do something to prevent that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n