Pharma company Pfizer has asked the United States to approve the Covid-19 vaccine for children up to 5 years of age, so that vaccination for young American children could begin in March. Meanwhile, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had asked Pfizer and its subsidiary BioNtech to apply before the scheduled event. There are 1.9 million children under the age of 5 in the United States who have not been vaccinated against the corona virus. At the same time, many parents are urging their children to be vaccinated. Especially at a time when a record number of children were hospitalized due to omicron infection. The Pfizer vaccine can also be given to children up to 6 months of age if approved by the FDA. The dose of this vaccine is one tenth of the dose given to the elderly.
Pfizer said it has started providing data to the FDA and expects the process to be completed in a few days. The big question is how many doses these kids will have to be given. In the initial test, 2 doses were considered sufficient for young children, but not enough for children who go to schools. Pfizer is testing 3 doses and final figures are expected by the end of March.
The FDA had asked Pfizer to apply because of the high number of children infected with omicron. An FDA spokesman said omicron infection have been reported in children up to 5 years of age. The FDA's final decision may come in a few months, but it's not the only hurdle. Pfizer will also need to be approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden's administration is trying to speed up the process of approving doses of the anti-Covid-19 vaccine for children. He argues that it is important to reopen schools at this age and get vaccinated to keep them open.