The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisers ask to authorise Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11, saying the advantages of vaccination surpass the risks. Authorisation for that age group would be an essential step towards vaccinating about 28 million kids.

If the FDA approves the jabs for this age group, an advisory board of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will meet to judge the administration of the vaccine. The CDC director will make the final call.
The pharma firms have said their vaccine registered 90.7 per cent effectiveness against the coronavirus in a clinical trial for children aged 5 to 11. While children growing seriously ill or dying from Covid-19 is comparatively rare with adults, some difficulties and infections in unvaccinated kids have increased due to the easily spread Delta variant of the coronavirus.

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Pfizer and BioNTech are trying approval for a lower, 10-microgram dose of the vaccine for kids. The advisers paid close attention to the rate of a heart inflammation called myocarditis linked to both the vaccines, especially with young men. If the number of myocarditis cases in the 5 to 11 age group is similar to 12 to 15 year olds, the hospitalizations checked for Covid-19 will outnumber those prevented for myocarditis in most scenarios, FDA staff reviewers said.