UPDATE: CDC director OK's Pfizer Covid vaccine for 12-15-year-olds

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Wed, 2021-05-12 15:34 — mike kraft

UPDATE

CDC director recommends use of Pfizer Covid vaccine in 12-15-year-olds The director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said Wednesday the agency now recommends the use of Pfizer/BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine in 12-15-year-olds. CNN

The director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said Wednesday the agency now recommends the use of Pfizer/BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine in 12-15-year-olds.

“Today, I adopted CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices’ (ACIP) recommendation that endorsed the safety and effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and its use in 12- through 15-year-old adolescents,” Walensky said in a statement.

“Though most children with COVID-19 have mild or no symptoms, some children can get severely ill and require hospitalization. There have also been rare, tragic cases of children dying from COVID-19 and its effects, including multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, or MIS-C,” Walensky added.

“This official CDC recommendation follows Monday’s FDA decision to authorize emergency use of this vaccine in 12- through 15-year-old adolescents and is another important step to getting out of the COVID-19 pandemic, and closer to normalcy.”

Earlier report :

CDC advisers recommend coronavirus vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds Pharmacies and large vaccination clinics that have the Pfizer vaccine are likely to be among the first places where adolescents can get the shots. Lena H. Sun Washington Post

An advisory panel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Wednesday that the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine be used in children as young as 12, expanding access to adolescents in an important next phase to end the pandemic.

The vote was 14 in favor with one recusal. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky is expected to sign off within hours, giving the green light for the two-dose vaccine to be used in 12- to 15-year-olds. The Food and Drug Administration cleared the vaccine for emergency use in that age group Monday, saying it was safe and effective at the same dose being given to those 16 and older.

The CDC action will mean the inoculation can be given at any site authorized to administer the shots. Pharmacies and large vaccination clinics that already have doses of the Pfizer vaccine are likely to be among the first places where adolescents can get the shots, according to federal and state health officials. The vaccine’s cold-storage requirements and large lot size — 1,170 doses is the minimum order — make it more challenging to be distributed to doctors’ offices right away, officials said.

Some states, including Arkansas, Delaware and Georgia, opened up eligibility on Tuesday, a day after the FDA authorized the vaccine for younger teens. But many other states and providers were waiting for the CDC recommendation; some insurance plans won’t reimburse providers for the administration fee without the CDC sign-off.' ...

Vaccination of a significant number of adolescents could also allow U.S. schools and summer camps to relax masking and social-distancing measures recommended by the CDC, and help speed a return to normalcy. There are almost 17 million adolescents in the 12- to 15-year-old age group in the United States, accounting for about 5.3 percent of the U.S. population and almost 27 percent of the population younger than 16, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

One lengthy debate occurred when advisory panel members questioned whether the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine should be given alongside other childhood or adolescent vaccines in the absence of data on how it might interact with them. That’s an issue because routine immunizations have fallen sharply during the pandemic, a decline of nearly 12 million doses as of May 2, compared with 2019, according to a CDC presentation. ...

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