A panel of government experts recommended kid-size doses of Pfizer’s vaccines for 5- to 11-year-olds on Tuesday, bringing the US one step closer to spreading Covid-19 vaccination to millions more children.
A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted unanimously with one abstention that the vaccine’s benefits in preventing Covif-19 in that age group outweigh any potential risks — including a heart-related side effect that’s been very rare in teens and young adults who get a much higher dose.
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While children are at lower risk of severe Covid-19 than older people, ultimately many panelists decided it’s important to give parents the choice to protect their youngsters — especially those at high risk of illness or who live in places where other precautions, like masks in schools, aren’t being used.
The virus is “not going away. We have to find a way to live with it and I think the vaccines give us a way to do that,” said FDA adviser Jeannette Lee of the University of
Arkansas.
(With inputs from agencies)
