Enlarge / A 13-year-old celebrates getting the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in Hartford, Connecticut, on May 13, 2021. (credit: Getty | JOSEPH PREZIOSO )
A committee of medical experts advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted unanimously (14 to 0) in favor of recommending a low dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.
Specifically, the committee voted in favor of offering two vaccine doses—which are 10 micrograms each, a third of the dose for people ages 12 and up—three weeks apart. This regimen produced comparable levels of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 in children ages 5 to 11 as seen in adolescents and young adults after vaccination. And in a clinical trial involving about 2,250 children ages 5 to 11, the vaccine was 91 percent effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19.
The CDC committee's vote is the penultimate hurdle before the US will have its first pediatric COVID-19 vaccine. Late Friday, the Food and Drug Administration completed another key hurdle, issuing the emergency use authorization (EUA) for the pediatric formulation of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in children ages 5 to 11. Now that the CDC's advisory committee—the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)—has voted in favor of use in that age group, the only remaining step is for CDC Director Rochelle Walensky to sign off on the recommendation. She is expected to announce that sign-off quickly, possibly within hours. And once that occurs, vaccine providers are allowed to begin providing the vaccine.
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source https://arstechnica.com/?p=1809743