CDC recommends Covid vaccine for infants

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday officially approved the Pfizer-BioNTech Coronavirus Vaccine for children ages 5-11. ..

At an early meeting of the day, a committee of scientific advisors unanimously recommended vaccination of these children. Inoculation may start soon this week.

In a statement Tuesday night, CDC director Rochelle Walensky said, “Together, science has taken the lead and has taken another important step in the fight against the virus that causes Covid-19. “.

Of the 29 million children in this age group, relatively few are fully immunized one month from now, but even partial vaccination provides some protection against the coronavirus. .. According to the CDC, for every 1 million doses given to children aged 5 to 11 years, the group can prevent approximately 58,000 cases and 226 hospitalizations.

Immunizing these children is expected to prevent approximately 600,000 new cases between November 2021 and March 2022.

Vaccination of young children can help keep the school open. According to data released at a committee meeting, the virus outbreak closed about 2,300 schools between early August and October, affecting more than 1.2 million students...

The pandemic also stagnated regular immunization, widened educational inequality, and increased the rate of anxiety and depression in children. “Vaccination of children aged 5 to 11 not only helps prevent Covid-19 infections and the serious consequences of infection in this age group, but also helps children emotionally and socially.” , Says Dr. Pamela Rockwell, who represents the American Family Medicine Society. Family doctor on the CDC panel.

Still, 3 out of 10 parents say they do Never vaccinate For children aged 5 to 11 years, according to the latest polls by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Only 3 out of 10 parents said they would immunize their children “immediately”. This is a rare percentage since similar polls in July and September.

Many other parents want to see their children get vaccinated as soon as possible. In anticipation of the CDC decision The Biden administration has joined the army Over 20,000 pediatricians, family doctors and pharmacies to manage shots. Federal officials said Monday that about 15 million doses of vaccination had already been shipped to vaccination facilities nationwide.

Children aged 5 to 11 receive one-third of the dose allowed for children over the age of 12, and the vaccine is delivered with a small needle and packaged in small vials so as not to be confused with the adult dose. ..

About half of Kaiser poll parents said they were worried about their obligation to vaccinate their children. Schools in all 50 states already need specific vaccines, but so far only emergency approvals have been fully approved by the FDA Covid vaccine for children.

This month California became the first state to say so Need a child Those attending state public and private schools to be vaccinated as early as next fall — but for medical reasons or religious beliefs, even in states where the vaccine is only required after it has been fully approved by the FDA. You may be able to opt out for some reason.

Before they met, FDA and CDC advisers were struck by thousands of emails that provided false information about the vaccine and asked experts to vote against it.

One common objection is that children are rarely infected with the virus, so the potential harm of the vaccine can outweigh its benefits. But the risk to children is not zero, CDC scientists said at the conference.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, more than 8,300 children between the ages of 5 and 11 have been hospitalized in Covid and at least 94 have died. About one-third of the children admitted were ill enough to be admitted to the intensive care unit.

Almost 10% of children with mild symptoms can have prolonged problems months after the infection has resolved. And at least 2,300 children between the ages of 5 and 11 developed a condition called multisystem inflammatory syndrome after infection.

CDC advisors also evaluated data on vaccine risk. Dr. Matthew Daly, a senior researcher at Kaiser Permanente, Colorado, had enough information to conclude that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks.

“If you wait, you’ll miss the opportunity to prevent many cases of Covid-19 in this age group, including very severe cases,” he said.

In clinical trials of vaccines in children, Pfizer first tested the full dose for adults and two small doses. The company produced at least as many antibodies as observed in young adults given higher doses, with the fewest side effects, thus settling down to one-third of the lowest adult dose.

According to Dr. Alejandra Gurtman, the efficacy of this vaccine was over 90% in children aged 5 to 11 years., Vice President of Pfizer who presented the data at the conference. Some children experienced fever, headaches, and malaise. This is the same side effect seen in the older group.

The FDA has called on Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna to scale up pediatric trials to detect less common side effects of the vaccine. Still, the Pfizer-BioNTech trial was not large enough to detect rare adverse events.

CDC panel experts have spent time examining a rare side effect of vaccination called myocarditis, myocardial inflammation. The risk is highest for men aged 16-29 years, but even in that group, the majority recover quickly.

Experts said at a meeting that the risk appears to be lower in children aged 12 to 15 and is expected to be even lower in younger children. Covid itself Much more likely Studies have shown to cause myocarditis, and a more serious version of it.

The CDC does not explicitly link myocarditis death to vaccination, said Dr. Matthew Oster, a CDC scientist who presented myocarditis data at the conference. “I think getting Covid is far more dangerous to the heart than this vaccine, regardless of age or gender,” Dr. Oster said.

Given the millions of Americans who have not yet been vaccinated, immunizing young children is likely to lead the country to a “herd immunity” threshold where viral infections are stagnant. is not. Nevertheless, vaccination of children may help reduce the spread of the virus by reducing the invasion of the virus into the community.

It may also help protect people who do not respond well to the vaccine, such as organ transplant recipients and cancer patients. Impaired immune response..

Dr. Camille Cotton, who cares for immunocompromised people at Massachusetts General Hospital, said:

Results from Pfizer vaccine trials in children under the age of 5 are not expected until the end of the year at the earliest.Last week, Moderna got the vaccine Strong immune response Children aged 6 to 11 years who received half the dose of adults.

In June, Moderna requested the FDA for permission to use the vaccine in children aged 12 to 17 years. The FDA has not yet decided on the application and is considering a report linking the vaccine to myocarditis. The company said on Sunday.