Millions of child-size doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine are being shipped from the company's facilities to distribution centers across the country -- ready to go out to pharmacies and pediatricians' offices, the Biden administration said Monday.
They're just waiting for the OK from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, whose independent advisers will vote Tuesday on whether to recommend COVID-19 vaccines for 5- to 11-year-olds.
The CDC says 745 children under 18 have died."The chance that a child will have severe Covid, require hospitalization or develop a long term complication like MIS-C remains low, but still the risk is too high and too devastating to our children, and far higher than for many other diseases for which we vaccinate children," Walensky added.
The US Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer's vaccine for this younger age group on Friday, giving the company the distinction of having the first emergency use authorization for a Covid-19 shot for younger kids in the United States. The FDA said the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risk to children.
While Covid-19 cases have been declining, including among children, the number of kids with Covid-19 is still considered"extremely high," according to the AAP. On Friday, immediately after the FDA authorized the vaccine, FDA acting commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock urged parents to get their children vaccinated as soon as they can.
Dr. Grace Lee, the chair of the committee, told CNN while data is limited, the surveillance systems in place are doing a good job picking up on vaccine safety signals. She said the CDC is also doing a long-term study of people who develop an inflammatory heart condition known as myocarditis after vaccination.
The CDC's advisers will also discuss potential ways to implement the pediatric vaccine program, as well as which children specifically should get the shot.