New York: In a major expansion of the United States vaccination campaign, health officials on Tuesday gave the final signoff to Pfizer’s kid-size COVID-19 shot.
Earlier, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had already authorised the shots for children in the age group of 5 to 11 but it is the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention, which recommends who should receive FDA-cleared vaccines.
The doses for children are just a third of the amount given to teens and adults.
An influential advisory panel on Tuesday recommended kid-size doses of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine for all children ages 5 to 11.
If CDC director, Dr Rochelle Walensky, signs off as expected, it will mark the first opportunity for Americans under 12 to get the powerful protection of any COVID-19 vaccine.
“Today is a monumental day in the course of this pandemic,” Walensky told the advisory panel as it began its deliberations earlier Tuesday, AP reported.
She said while the risk of severe disease and death is lower in young children than adults, it is real and that COVID-19 has had a profound social, mental health and educational impact on youngsters, including widening disparities in learning.
Millions of shots made by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech have already been shipped to states, doctors’ offices and pharmacies — in orange caps, to avoid mix-ups with purple-capped vials of adult vaccine, the report added.
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