Pfizer claims its Covid-19 vaccine is safe for 5-year-old kids too
Last month, an Indian pharmaceutical company named Zydus Cadila announced its Covid-19 vaccine for kids, ZyCoV-D, the first ever Covid-19 vaccine approved for the young population aged between 12 and 18 years.
While scientists and pharmaceutical companies around the world have been conducting endless research to find vaccines for kids below 12, Pfizer, the UK- based company whose vaccines have become popular worldwide (including India, who recently ordered 50 million doses of it for its adult population) has claimed that its vaccine is safe for kids as young as 5 years old.
Who is it suitable for?
With children being increasingly exposed to COVID-19 virus in last few months, Pfizer, the pharma giant has sought permission to experiment its BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine among kids aged between 5 and 11 years. Their double-dose vaccine has already been approved for adolescents, 12 years and above. The officials are expecting that if tested, their vaccine will initiate a great immunity response in very young children.
Is the vaccine working for small kids?
So far, Pfizer has tested this vaccine on over 2268 children aged between 5 and 11 years and have received positive results. According to the manufacturers, the immunity responses as well as side effects among the young population have been quite similar to that of 16- to 25-year-olds. The levels of virus-combating antibodies were seen to be actively working. However, the frequency or severity of the side effects among younger kids aren’t clearly known. Pfizer has also claimed that this vaccine will only cure coronavirus (in moderate to advanced cases) and not prevent it.
When is it expected to be available?
Both the collaborators, Pfizer and BioNTech are in the process of submitting their already collected data to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and International Drug Regulators. They are aiming to come up with the first ever authorized vaccine for younger kids globally.
In fact, with Covid-19 now affecting even newborns, Pfizer further expects their vaccine to work effectively on them, and claims to declare the results of its research by the end of 2021.
Since July this year, cases of paediatric COVID-19 have gone up by 240% in the USA and almost 75% in India, making it the need of the hour to launch as many vaccines as possible in the international market. While drug and vaccine approval often take up to a year, Pfizer has requested all the drug regulators to speed up the process.
Pfizer has stated that the DA is likely to approve it by the end of October for them to continue with their research and manufacture a fresh lot of bulk vaccines to be distributed worldwide by the end of the year.
Number of doses required
While individuals above 12 years require two doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine (30 microgram each), their new research has shown that 5- to 11-year-olds will also need double doses. However, the amount given will be much less, i.e., 10 microgram each with 90% efficiency.