As Covid-19 cases in children spike across the United States, anticipation for a vaccine for children under 12 have started. Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Sunday that a vaccine for children between the age 5 and 11 will ‘certainly’ be made available by this fall. Health officials have provided similar timelines in recent weeks. The nation’s top expert in infectious disease said to ABC that they will be able to get enough data for the vaccines for children to be presented for safety and immunogenicity, in the coming weeks.
The time frame for vaccines authorization for emergency use will have a difference of few weeks between the drug makers since some companies are slightly ahead in terms of gathering data, Fauci said. Pfizer is expecting to submit the vaccine study results by the end of September while Moderna has announced to make the data available by the end of this year. For the approval of the vaccine, drug makers have to wait few weeks for the data to be reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration.
The director of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky also said that vaccines for children under 12 could be made available by the end of the year. Fauci shared similar timeline last month saying that children between the age 5 and 11 will be eligible to receive vaccines by the end of fall or by early winter.
The number of weekly Covid-19 cases in the country hit its second highest record last week according to a report released by the American Academy of Paediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association. The case count was thirty times higher than the records back in July this year. The spike in Covid-19 cases among children has urged the administration to prepare the paediatric vaccine as soon as possible.
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