CDC Panel Recommends Pfizer Covid Vaccine Boosters For Ages 12-15
Topline
The Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 13-1 Wednesday to suggest adolescents age 12-15 obtain a booster of Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine with 9 states reporting report numbers of youngsters hospitalized with the virus.
Jamie Clean (L) holds her son, Ari Clean’s hand as he receives the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine … [+]
Jeff Kowalsky/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
Key Information
If CDC Director Rochelle Walensky follows the panel’s non-binding suggestion, it could enable adolescents age 12-15 to obtain a 3rd shot of Pfizer’s vaccine at the least 5 months after finishing their main collection of photographs.
The panel’s suggestion was knowledgeable by an Israeli Ministry of Well being examine that discovered that the chance of myocarditis, a coronary heart irritation, amongst adolescents was low, affecting solely two contributors in a examine of 41,610 adolescents age 12-15 who acquired booster photographs.
The examine indicated that the first collection of vaccines wore off round six months after the ultimate dose, however {that a} single booster diminished considerably an infection vulnerability, Israeli Ministry of Well being head of public providers Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis informed the panel.
Amongst adolescents age 12-15, the most typical adversarial reactions to Pfizer’s vaccine are dizziness, momentary lack of consciousness as a result of a drop in blood stress, and headache, that are thought of non-serious, stated Dr. John R. Su, a member of the CDC’s Vaccine Security Group.
The FDA authorized using a 3rd dose of Pfizer’s vaccine for adolescents age 12-15 Monday, additionally decreasing the interval for booster shot eligibility to 5 months from six.
Key Background
Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maine, Missouri, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., have reported record-breaking ranges of Covid-related pediatric hospitalizations, NBC reported. In the meantime, vaccine uptake amongst youngsters has slowed, in accordance with CDC knowledge. Obtainable knowledge signifies that Covid poses a far larger threat to kids than vaccine unwanted side effects akin to myocarditis. A examine of 1.14 million kids aged 12-17 discovered that the chance of myocarditis or pericarditis was about 0.07 in 1 million for the primary dose of the Pfizer vaccine and about 70.8 in 1 million for the second dose, Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Examine Heart researcher Dr. Nicola Klein informed the panel. Threat of myocarditis seems to peak at age 16-17, stated Dr. Peter Marks, director of the Heart for Biologics Analysis and Analysis for the FDA.
Contra
A lot of the out there knowledge was collected when delta was the dominant variant within the U.S., and will not be correct for the omicron variant, CDC officers stated.
Additional Studying
“CDC Advisory Panel Considers Pfizer Covid-19 Boosters for 12- to 15-Year-Olds” (Wall Avenue Journal)
“Children are hospitalized with Covid at record numbers” (NBC)
