Teens Aged 12 to 15 Can Now Get Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine in the U.S.

On May 10, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) extended authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to 12- to 15-year-olds. It’s the first COVID-19 shot authorized for this younger population. “I cannot tell you how many people have been anxiously awaiting this day to get their kids vaccinated,” says Dr. Flor Munoz, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine, and a member of the infectious disease committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics. The green light was based on review of data the two companies released in March showing that two doses of their vaccine provided similar protection from COVID-19 disease among this age group as it did for adults. Among the more than 2,200 teens in the study group the FDA reviewed, 16 developed COVID-19—none of them were in the vaccinated group. The companies’ studies found that levels of virus-fighting antibodies were on average higher among the 12- to 15-year-olds that got the vaccine than among vaccinated 16- to 25-year-olds in previous studies. “This is part of the totality of getting our country protected against COVID-19, which is just waiting around the corner to come have another wave if we don’t get a sufficient degree of vaccination,” said Dr. Peter Marks, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the FDA, during a briefing discussing the decision. The authorization was base...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news