Is there any news on when any of the Covid vaccines now approved for people 12-and-over will be approved (emergency or otherwise) for those under 12? For the U.S. in particular, although approval in other countries of vaccines for children would be interesting too.
As I recall, there were prominent news stories along the lines of “X vaccine will likely be approved next week” leading up to the actual approvals, but I haven’t seen anything similar lately for under-12 approval.
As of a couple of weeks ago, Pfizer was still planning on seeking authorization from the FDA in September, at which point it will depend on how quickly the FDA gives it EUA status, which I do expect to happen, but don’t know if it will be two weeks or two months.
It’s not entirely clear. Pfizer said recently they would likely submit an application by the end of September, for, I think, ages 5-11. It’s not clear how fast the FDA will be, or how much data they will require. They may require more safety data for children than they did for adults.
There’s lots of information in this article:
Sounds like there’s been some progress:
On Monday, Pfizer announced it will seek emergency-use authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11.
The FDA’s vaccine chief said earlier this month that he is “very, very hopeful” that vaccines will be authorized and rolled out for children ages 5 to 11 by the end of this year.
Pfizer had said in July that it expected to have results for the trials on kids 5 to 11 by September, children ages 2 to 5 soon after that, and infants and toddlers 6 months to 2 years old in October or November. It has come through on those first results, with no reported delays in trials for any of the younger age groups. Moderna said it also plans to run trials for children as young as 6 months.
I was listening to a podcast yesterday that predicted that the Pfizer vaccine would be available to the oldest of the age groups by Halloween, if everything goes smoothly. My fingers are crossed.
My fingers are crossed too! How old are the ertwins now?
8 whole years!
Man, time flies!