Teens Ages 12 to 15 Should Get Pfizer-BioNTech ’s COVID-19 Vaccine, Says a CDC Expert Panel

Following the US Food and Drug Administration’s decision on May 10 to extend emergency use authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to include 12- to 15-year olds, the Centers for Disease Control added its recommendation that teens in that age group should be vaccinated with the shot. The expert panel of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices makes immunization recommendations, and determined that based on the evidence from a study of more than 2200 teens conducted by Pfizer-BioNTech, that the vaccine was safe and effective. During the day-long meeting, however, the members discussed whether to allow vaccination with the Pfizer-BioNTech shot along with other vaccinations teens may need to get, including against HPV, hepatitis and meningitis. Currently, out of an abundance of caution, CDC recommends that people not get other vaccines 14 days before or after the COVID-19 dose. But based on the safety seen from hundreds of millions of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine given around the world so far, the CDC proposed to the immunization committee that this requirement be relaxed to allow people, including teens, to now get other vaccines, such as the flu shot, potentially even on the same day as they get their COVID-19 dose. That’s especially important for teens, who might have missed doses of required vaccines over the past year; when they come in for their COVID-19 vaccine, it might be a good opportunity to catch them up on any missed ones as w...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news