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MONDAY, September 20, 2021 (HealthDay News) – A lower dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine safely triggers a strong immune response in children as young as 5, the company said Monday morning.
“In the past nine months, hundreds of millions of people aged 12 and over around the world have received our COVID-19 vaccine,” said Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla, Ph.D., in a press release. “We look forward to expanding the protection offered by the vaccine to this younger population, subject to regulatory approval, especially as we follow the spread of the delta variant and the substantial threat it poses to them. children. “
The discovery, which will likely be good news for many parents and pediatricians, is a crucial step towards making the Pfizer two-dose regimen available to young school-aged children starting on Halloween, The Washington Post reported. The pediatric dose used in the trial was one-third the strength of adult injections.
As COVID-19 cases skyrocket among children as the school year begins, pediatricians have been inundated with requests to bend the rules and give children a chance now, The post office reported. The new data appear likely to intensify that pressure, even though the existing Pfizer vaccine is triple the dose tested in the trial.
“No one should really be independent – they should wait for the appropriate approval and recommendations to decide how best to handle their own children’s situation,” said William Gruber, MD, senior vice president of research and development. vaccine clinical development at Pfizer. The post office, explaining that young children tend to have more “exuberant” immune responses to vaccines than older people.
In July, the FDA asked Pfizer and Moderna to increase the size of their pediatric trials to ensure the safety data was strong, The post office reported. There were nearly 2,300 children aged 5 to 11 in the Pfizer trial, two-thirds of whom received the vaccine. The others received saline injections. The results of the trial showed that children who received the vaccine had immune responses similar to those seen in adolescents and young adults, according to Pfizer. Two injections of a dose of 10 mcg, spaced three weeks apart, were well tolerated.
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