As soon as the US Food and Drug Administration authorizes the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 in the United States, pediatricians’ offices, local pharmacies and even some schools will be ready to help get those first doses into young arms.
Vaccine makers Pfizer and BioNTech announced on Thursday that they have officially submitted a request to the FDA for the emergency use authorization of their Covid-19 vaccine for young children ages 5 to 11. The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee is scheduled to meet later this month to discuss the Pfizer data.
If the committee recommends the shot and FDA OKs it, a panel of CDC vaccine advisers will meet to consider whether to recommend its use in this age group. Once the CDC signs off, administration could begin as soon as supplies of the child-sized doses are in pediatricians offices and other sites. That could come at the end of October or by early November.
When adults began getting Covid-19 vaccines, many got their shots through nursing homes or mass vaccination sites.
Then for adolescents ages 12 to 15, many doses were administered at pharmacies and doctors’ offices. That’s likely to be the case with younger children, too, and with kids now back in class, schools may play a larger role this time.
Pediatricians, pharmacies, schools could give shots
As part of the planning for who will administer Covid-19 shots for young children, “we’re trying to get pediatricians enrolled and that’s a major strategy,” Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers, told CNN.
Yet pediatricians who are enrolled may not receive vaccine doses immediately when the vaccine is authorized. For some, it could take time to receive shipments of the vaccine.
