Pfizer Set To Ask FDA To Authorize COVID Vaccine For Kids Age 2-11
Michael Cantrell
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Pfizer is all set to seek federal authorization to use the company’s COVID-19 vaccine in children that are between the ages of 2 to 11 by the month of September according to an announcement put out by the company today.
As of right now, there are trials going on for kids as young as six months old. Most children have been shown to not suffer from severe cases of the illness, providing them with a vaccine is believed by experts to be necessary to slowing the transmission of the virus.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a Tuesday earnings call that the company plans to submit a request for expanded use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration to use the two-dose vaccine in children six months to 2 years old before the end of the year.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has been authorized for use in adults starting at 16 years old. Meanwhile, Moderna’s two-dose vaccine has been authorized for use in adults starting at age 18. The update from Pfizer executives comes just days after federal officials disclosed that the company’s shots were about a week away from being authorized for adolescents 12-15.
Vaccination rates among adults have declined in recent weeks, a sign that demand for the shots has slipped despite being available to all adults who want them. Roughly 2.3 million shots were administered on average each day over the past week, compared with a daily average of about 3.4 million shots just three weeks ago.
The majority of adults in the United States who are over the age of 18 have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, with almost 41 percent of these adults having been completely vaccinated with all the required doses.
Almost 70 percent of individuals who are 65 and older, which is also the age group at the highest risk of experiencing severe cases of the COVID-19 virus, have been fully vaccinated according to data reported by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention.
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