U.S. FDA clears Pfizer vaccine for ages five to 11

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday authorized Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine for emergency use in children ages five to 11, a move eagerly anticipated by millions of families looking to protect some of the only remaining Americans left out of the vaccination campaign.

About 28 million children in the group will be eligible to receive one-third of the adult dose, with two injections three weeks apart. If the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signs off, as is expected, they could start getting shots as early as Wednesday.

The Biden administration has promised children’s shots will be easily accessible at pediatrician offices, community health centres, children’s hospitals and pharmacies, with 15 million doses ready to ship immediately. States started ordering doses last week, under a formula based on how many children they have in the age group.

“It’s an incredibly important tool in the return to normalcy,” said Dr. Larry Corey, a virus expert at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and a leader of the COVID-19 Prevention Network. “To be able to know that your child is protected and not going to get severely ill by going to school is an incredible psychological relief.”

A survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation found 27 per cent of parents of five- to 11-year-olds were eager to vaccinate their children right away, while one-third said they would wait and see how the vaccine rollout went.