Covid Vaccination For U.S. Kids Aged 5-11 To Run In Full Swing Next Week

The White House announced that starting the week of November 8, the U.S. Government’s vaccination program for children aged 5 to 11 will be running at full strength.

On Friday, after getting safety and efficacy results in a rigorous scientific review, the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine for kids ages 5 through 11.

Today, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will meet to have a comprehensive discussion on the data for vaccine effectiveness, safety, and clinical need in children in this age group. Following the meeting, the CDC is expected to release its recommendations for vaccination of children 5 to 11.

White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said that ahead of the CDC decision, the administration has secured enough vaccine for all 28 million children in the country ages 5 through 11.

The process of moving 15 million doses from Pfizer’s freezers and facilities to distribution centers is in full swing.

Zients indicated that vaccinations may start later this week.

With millions more doses packed, shipped, and delivered, and thousands of additional sites coming online each day, parents will be able to schedule appointments at convenient sites.

And the number of sites will continue to increase throughout the month as more vaccine sites open their doors and administer vaccine.

In addition to families who turn to their pediatricians and family doctors to get their children inoculated, thousands of other trusted providers will also offer vaccinations for kids, including local pharmacies, health centers, and children’s hospitals.

Overall, more than 20,000 pediatricians, family doctors, pharmacies, and other providers parents know and trust are getting ready to administer vaccines.

Zients made it clear that these vaccines are specifically formulated for younger children, which means none of the vaccines already in the field for adults can be used for this purpose.

The FDA Advisory Committee gave authorization after reviewing effectiveness and immune response to Pfizer’s vaccine dose administered among nearly 2,000 children.

In the clinical trial, cases of COVID-19 were reported among only 3 children out of more than 1,300 children who received the vaccine, and only 16 positive cases were reported in the 660 children who received a placebo.

The FDA Advisory Committee also reviewed safety data from an additional 2,000 children who received the vaccine and found no severe adverse events and reported post-vaccine symptoms, including soreness at the site, headaches, muscle aches, and low-grade fevers that were very similar to the adult population.

With 121,139 new cases reported on Monday, the total number of Covid infections in the country rose to 46,098,032, as per the latest data from Johns Hopkins University.

An additional 1,201 Covid deaths on the same day took the total number of people who have died due to the pandemic to 747,257.

Meanwhile, the total number of lives lost due to the pandemic crossed 5 million globally.

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