ST. PETE BEACH, Fla. — Another age group could soon have access to a vaccine to protect against and prevent serious illness from COVID-19.
At the urging of the FDA, Pfizer submitted its shot for those ages six months to four years for Emergency Use Authorization.
Those shots are a much lower dose than what five to 12-year-old children receive and about a tenth of the amount given to adults.
Doctors have said that many children experience mild symptoms when infected. But, there are children hospitalized and those who die from complications. January saw the highest rate of hospitalizations in children and 287 children had died from complications related to COVID-19 as of Feb. 2.
Dr. Juan Dumois is a pediatric infectious disease physician at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital.
“Vaccination decreases that already low risk of hospitalization or death from COVID to almost zero. And again, I think most parents could agree having a risk of almost zero is better than having a slightly higher risk,” he said.
Many expect that Pfizer’s vaccine for those six months to four years will be approved.
Once Emergency Use Authorization is given, Dr. Dumois explained there will be intense monitoring looking for side effects that maybe are not currently known as another age group gets vaccinated.
Doctors are required to report possible side effects so the FDA and CDC can monitor them.
"They then do ongoing monitoring looking for other side effects, more rare side effects, as more and more people get the vaccine. So, they've been doing that for the children 5 to 12 and still are not seeing anything unusual,” Dumois said.
The FDA is expected to meet on Feb.15 to discuss vaccines for kids.
Additionally, 10 Tampa Bay asked Dr. Dumois when and what it will take for Pfizer’s shot for children ages 5 to 12 to get full approval from the FDA. Right now, it’s still under Emergency Use Authorization.
He said Pfizer will have to submit all of the data it has for that age group to the FDA and he expects that we could see that happen within the next four to six weeks.
Pfizer’s shot already has full approval for those 16 and older. And as of Monday, Moderna’s vaccine has full approval for those 18 and older.