US panel urges kids 5-11 get COVID shots, final OK due soon

An influential advisory panel on Tuesday recommended kid-size doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11, putting the United States on the brink of a major expansion of vaccinations.

A final decision was expected within hours.

The Food and Drug Administration already has OK'd the kid-size doses — just a third of the amount given to teens and adults — as safe and effective for the younger age group.

But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention formally recommends who should receive FDA-cleared vaccines — and its advisers unanimously decided Pfizer's shots should be opened to 28 million youngsters.

If the CDC's director, Dr Rochelle Walensky, signs off as expected, it will mark the first opportunity for Americans under 12 to get the powerful protection of any COVID-19 vaccine.

“Today is a monumental day in the course of this pandemic,” Walensky told the advisory panel as it began its deliberations earlier Tuesday.

She said while the risk of severe disease and death is lower in young children than adults, it is real — and that COVID-19 has had a profound social, mental health and educational impact on youngsters, including widening disparities in learning.

“There are children in the second grade who have never experienced a normal school year,” Walensky said. “Paediatric vaccination has the power to help us change all of that.”

Paediatricians in parts of the country are ready to start getting shots into little arms as soon as they get the final OK, as Pfizer already has begun shipping millions of doses to states, doctors' offices and pharmacies.

Many paediatricians and parents have clamoured for protection for youngsters so they can resume normal childhood activities without risking their own health — or fear bringing the virus home to a more vulnerable family member.

And several panellists who've cared for hospitalised youngsters said they want parents with questions to know the shots are safe and far better than gambling their child will escape a coronavirus infection.

“I have vaccinated my kids,” said CDC adviser Dr Helen Keipp Talbot of Vanderbilt University, saying she wouldn't recommend something for other families unless she was comfortable with it for her own. “We have seen the devastation of this disease.”

In the U.S., there have been more than 8,300 hospitalisations of kids ages 5 to 11, about a third requiring intensive care, according to government data.

The CDC has recorded at least 94 deaths in that age group, with additional reports under investigation.

And while the US has seen a recent downturn in COVID-19 cases, experts are worried about another uptick with holiday travel and as winter sends more activity indoors where it's easier for the coronavirus to spread.

Pfizer's kid shots contain a third of the vaccine dose that's already been used to vaccinate millions of people 12 and older.

The 5- to 11-year-olds will receive two shots, three weeks apart, the same schedule as everyone else -- but a smaller amount in each shot, using a smaller needle.

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