While pondering whether a Covid vaccine should be recommended for young children, the Centers for Disease Control and Evaluation scientific advisers on Friday grappled with the complexity of the assessment. two very different vaccines and with limited data.
The advisors are tasked with making recommendations for the Moderna vaccine for children aged 6 months to 5 years and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children 6 months to 4 years of age.
Both vaccines appear to be safe for children, and committee members have little concern about side effects. But advisers ended the first day of the meeting with questions posed to Pfizer about the vaccine’s effectiveness and the number of doses needed to achieve it.
The two vaccines differ in almost every respect. For young children receiving the Moderna vaccine, the Food and Drug Administration has authorized two doses of 25 micrograms each, a quarter of the dose used for adults, four weeks apart.
But according to data presented on Friday, two doses of the Pfizer vaccine – just 3 micrograms each, or a tenth of the adult dose – did not produce strong immunity against the virus. in young children.
To be effective, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will need to be given in three doses: the first two doses three weeks apart, and the third dose at least two months later.
Pfizer has reported that three doses of their vaccine are about 80 percent effective against symptomatic disease. But that estimate is based on infections in just three children who were vaccinated in the company’s trials, the CDC committee members noted.
Dr. Matthew Daley, senior investigator at Kaiser Permanente Colorado who leads the CDC’s vaccine working group, said: “In the interest of complete transparency for parents, I am appropriate to acknowledge the uncertainty surrounding that.
Assuming the advisors are in favor of a vaccine, the director of the CDC, Dr Rochelle Walensky, is expected to sign the contract shortly. Countries already have millions of doses and will be getting their children vaccinated as early as Tuesday.
The Pfizer vaccine has been offered to children ages 5 to 11 since November, but less than 30% of them have received two shots.
On Friday, panelists also spent considerable time trying to determine exactly how the Omicron variants changed the risks to children. They note that parents who immunize their children with many other diseases have a similar, or even lower, risk of death.
The data “should only dispel the myth that this infection is not life-threatening at this age,” said Dr. Sarah Long, a panelist and infectious diseases expert at Drexel University School of Medicine, said.
Dr Daley said unvaccinated people aged 5 and over were 10 times more likely to die from Covid-19 than those who had received at least two shots of the vaccine. The figures “provide real evidence that most Covid-19 deaths are preventable through vaccination,” he added.
Acceptance of the vaccine will depend in part on the clarity of the CDC’s recommendations. FDA approval allows vaccines to be used, but doctors will look to the CDC’s advisory committee for specifics on how to use them.
Some studies have suggested that vaccines may work better if the intervals between doses are extended, and the CDC now says children 12 years of age and older and younger adults are at increased risk for Covid-19 A second dose of the vaccine may be considered eight weeks after the first. .
But the United States hasn’t gathered the information it needs to determine the ideal time period for young children, Dr. Doran Fink, a senior FDA official, said Friday.
