Children as young as six months old could be entitled to their first Covid vaccine by June amid pressure from some parents and the left-wing media – but many experts doubt vaccinations are needed for this age group.
dr Peter Marks — a top adviser on immunizations at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) — vowed Friday not to take more time than is required to approve immunizations.
Moderna on Thursday applied to give two doses of its vaccine to children between the ages of six months and five years. Pfizer is expected to make the same request for three vaccine doses in the coming weeks.
If his request is granted, it will make America the first country in the world to offer vaccinations to children under the age of two.
However, many experts have already said that vaccinations are not required for the age group, pointing out that they are at the lowest risk of contracting the virus.
Children have a vanishingly small risk of dying from the virus. A total of 1,017 have died from Covid since March 2020, official data shows – accounting for about 0.01 percent of America’s nearly one million deaths from the virus. For comparison, among people aged 65 and over, the death toll is 724 million.
More than three in four children under the age of 12 have also already contracted Covid and now have antibodies to the virus, according to national surveillance.
Moderna yesterday applied for its shot to be legal for people between the ages of six months and five years. The FDA is under increasing pressure to give the green light to children, but some experts have cautioned against biting children, saying they are at least risk from Covid
dr The FDA’s Peter Marks (left) vowed not to delay approval of vaccines for children. dr Michael Kurilla (right) is one of the few members of the National Institutes of Health that in October refused to approve vaccines for children ages five to 11
The graph above shows the proportion of 5- to 11-year-olds who are eligible to receive Pfizer’s vaccine who have received one or two doses of the vaccine. Up to 28 percent are currently double bumped, although shots for the age group have been available since October
The graph above shows the proportion of 12-17 year olds who have received a booster shot against Covid. At 24.5 percent, it is almost a quarter
Covid vaccines have not yet been made available for America’s 18 million children ages five and under.
Cuba has been vaccinating children as young as two since October, while both Chile and China offer vaccinations to everyone over the age of three.
Covid booster shots may not be needed every year, experts say
Covid booster vaccines may not be needed every year as protection against serious infections holds up ‘pretty well’, top scientists say.
dr Paul Offit of the FDA’s immunization advisory board warned on Tuesday that the US was at risk of sleepwalking into an annual flu-like Covid vaccination drive without considering whether the booster shots were actually needed.
Other senior scientists also raised concerns about additional boosters, saying the extra doses were likely to provide only limited protection against infection with the virus.
He told Stat News at a recent FDA panel meeting, “The only question was what we would kick with, not if we would kick.”
He added: “We didn’t define what the aim of that extra shot was.”
dr John Wherry, an immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania, also urged officials to carefully review the data before approving annual booster shots.
He said, “The efficacy data I’ve seen from the CDC conference and a lot of other data really shows that our protection against major diseases is holding up pretty well.”
Marks told The Washington Post today: “We’re not going to delay things unnecessarily here.
“We expect approvals for one or more pediatric vaccines in June.”
Moderna is expected to file a “full package” of information allowing it to receive an emergency permit in the second week of May.
The FDA will then hold meetings with its external advisors on June 8, 21, and 22 to review the application.
The mRNA vaccine is already available to everyone in the US over the age of 18 and has been administered to 216 million.
Pfizer’s sting was approved for people ages 12 to 15 in May and for people ages 5 to 11 in October.
But CDC statistics show that just over 28 percent of five- to 11-year-olds are now fully vaccinated.
Among 12 to 17 year olds, almost 60 percent got two doses.
A booster shot featuring Pfizer’s shot was also approved for 12- to 17-year-olds in January.
But only a quarter of the children and adolescents in this age group have received the booster dose so far.
Some parents are clamoring for the approval of Covid vaccinations for their children amid the rise in Covid cases and as almost all restrictions – including face masks – are dropped.
Left-wing publications have also campaigned for the age group to be stung.
CNN just ran a story today entitled, “Should Parents Celebrate There May Be A Vaccine For Young Children?”
Others urging the move include The New York Times, which ran a story on the subject last month that began: “For American parents, especially those with young children, the past few months have been dizzying and beyond frustrating.”
However, a number of experts have raised concerns about vaccinating children who are at low risk of developing serious illness from Covid and vanishingly small chance of death.
There are also concerns about myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation found in about one in 20,000 boys after vaccination. Girls are less at risk from the complication.
While the condition is mild in most cases, scientists are not yet sure of the long-term effects.
Earlier this year, vaccine expert Dr. Michael Kurilla, who is also director of the National Institutes of Health, is one of the few members who refused to approve vaccinations for children ages five to 11 in October.
He told at the time that he believed children with certain medical conditions that put them at high risk should be given the shot, but it was not clear whether they should be allowed for healthy children.
Experts have also railed against booster doses for children – which Pfizer is expected to request from under-12s.
dr Monica Ghandi, an infectious disease expert at California University in San Francisco, said: “The fact that 75 percent of our children and young people in the US have now been exposed to Covid and have evidence of it [antibodies] is further evidence that booster vaccinations are not necessary for this population.’
Ghandi has previously said she has no plans to give her 12- and 14-year-old sons the booster dose as the risks “outweigh” the benefits.
Today’s FDA pledge to approve syringes comes quickly on the heels of reports suggesting it wouldn’t consider Moderna’s application until it had Pfizer’s too.
It suggested regulators may have concerns about authorizing a shot that could be “less effective” when another is just weeks away.
dr Marks told the Post that if the vaccines were ready within a week of each other, he might submit their applications for consideration on consecutive days.
However, if there is a longer delay, he will hold separate meetings with advisers.
No region in the US has more than 45 percent of five- to eleven-year-olds fully vaccinated against Covid.
According to data, more than 150 million Covid vaccines are currently in storage or have been discarded since introduction began.