Pfizer asked the U.S. government to allow use of its COVID-19 vaccine in children ages 5 to 11 in what would be a major expansion that could combat an alarming rise in serious infections in young children and help schools stay open. Bloomberg reports citing sources that a CDC meeting will be set for the week of Nov. 1, with clearance possibly coming as soon as the day of that meeting.
A crucial topic of conversation at the FDA advisory meeting is likely to be the potential risk of myocarditis, or heart inflammation, in young kids who get the vaccine. Researchers are carefully monitoring rare cases of myocarditis that have occurred after messenger RNA shots, such as Pfizer’s.
Also watch: UK scraps quarantine for fully vaccinated Indian travellers from October 11
Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech said their research shows the younger kids should get one-third of the dose now given to everyone else. After their second dose, the 5- to 11-year-olds developed virus-fighting antibody levels just as strong as those that teens and young adults get from regular-strength shots.