Pfizer is already testing its vaccine on children as young as five (and soon will test it on children as young as six months), but the first results from the company’s trial on an older cohort of minors have just arrived, and unsurprisingly, the data showed the vaccines were 100% effective at protecting children from COVID-19.
To be sure, children are believed to be strongly resilient to COVID-19, the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus, naturally, although there have been cases of child fatalities attributed to COVID.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said the company is planning to submit the new data on the vaccine (developed in partnership with German drugmaker BioNTech) to the FDA “as soon as possible” as the company hopes that kids in the age group will be able to get vaccinated before the start of the new school year.
“We share the urgency to expand the authorization of our vaccine to use in younger populations and are encouraged by the clinical trial data from adolescents between the ages of 12 and 15,” Bourla said in a press release.
The trial enrolled 2,260 participants in the United States. There were 18 confirmed Covid-19 infections observed in the placebo group and no confirmed infections in the group that received the vaccine, the company said. Side effects were generally consistent in what was seen in adults.- READ MORE
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