Pf izer jab ‘effective in children aged 5-11’

‘Children returned to a normal life’

CHILDREN aged five could soon be vaccinated against Covid after Pfizer said trials showed its jab was effective in younger children.

The manufacturer said a low dose of its Covid-19 vaccine works for children aged five to 11 and it will seek approval from regulators for use in this age group.

The Pfizer-BioNTech jab has already been authorised for use in over-12s, and is being rolled out to teenagers in the UK.

Pfizer is now seeking to expand the jab for use in children of primary school age. It has tested a much lower dose – a third of the amount in each jab given now – on more than 2,000 under-12s in a trial.

The company said that after the second jab, children aged five to 11 developed coronavirus-fighting antibody levels just as strong as those in teenagers and young adults. Pfizer’s Dr Bill Gruber said the company aims to apply to the US Food and Drug Administration by the end of the month for emergency use in this age group, followed by applications to European and British regulators.

Although most Western countries are yet to vaccinate under-12s, Cuba last week began immunising children as young as two with its homegrown vaccines.

Dr Gruber said: ‘There’s pent-up demand for parents to be able to have their children returned to a normal life.’

Pfizer said it studied the lower dose in 2,268 nursery and primary school-aged children. It reported the results in a press release yesterday but the full findings have not been published.

The study is ongoing, and there have not yet been enough Covid-19 cases to compare rates between the vaccinated and those given a placebo – something that might offer additional evidence. A second US vaccine maker, Moderna, is also studying its jabs in primary school children.