Pfizer’s Covid vaccine could be authorized for children aged 5-11 but may pose risk for boys
Healthy boys may be more likely to be admitted to hospital with a rare side-effect of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine that causes inflammation of the heart than with Covid itself, US researchers claim.
Their analysis of medical data suggests that boys aged 12 to 15, with no underlying medical conditions, are four to six times more likely to be diagnosed with vaccine-related myocarditis than ending up in hospital with Covid over a four-month period.
Most children who experienced the rare side-effect had symptoms within days of the second shot of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, though a similar side-effect is seen with the Moderna jab. About 86% of the boys affected required some hospital care, the authors said.
Saul Faust, professor of paediatric immunology and infectious diseases at the University of Southampton, who was not involved in the work, said the findings appeared to justify the cautious approach taken on teenage vaccines by the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccines and Immunisation. [Continue reading…]
Top U.S. health officials believe that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine could be authorized for children aged 5-11 years old by the end of October, two sources familiar with the situation said on Friday.
The timeline is based on the expectation that Pfizer, which developed the shot with Germany’s BioNTech, will have enough data from clinical trials to seek emergency use authorization (EUA) for that age group from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) towards the end of this month, the sources said.
They anticipate the FDA could make a decision on whether the shot is safe and effective in younger children within three weeks of the EUA submission. [Continue reading…]