Pfizer has announced that it has sought emergency clearance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its Covid-19 vaccine for children aged 6 months to 5 years. If approved, it would be the first vaccine in the United States for this age group.
The vaccine could be available for administration in the US as early as the end of February or early March.
And it is precisely among children from zero to five years that hospitalizations in the medical and resuscitation area have grown in Italy in the last four weeks, according to data provided yesterday by the Association of Italian pediatric hospitals (Aopi), which re-launches the invitation to parents to vaccinating to protect the little ones and vaccinating children between 5 and 11 years old for whom the preparation has already been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the Italian AIFA.
The Pfizer vaccine now presented to the attention of the FDA will also follow the same procedure and, if approved by the US body, it will then be submitted to EMA scientists and the Italian regulatory body.
HOW IT WORKS - For the preparation for children from six months to five years, it was learned, a dose equal to one tenth of those used for adults will be used and the cycle will initially include two inoculations. Meanwhile, the pharmaceutical company will continue to study the effectiveness of three doses of the same vaccine because, according to a source told the Washington Post, only two doses would not have induced a sufficient immune response.
"We know that two doses are not enough - said the source - but the idea is to start analyzing the data on the use of two doses, waiting for the results of the tests on the third dose, probably arriving by the end of March. ".
(Unioneonline / vl)