The European Medicines Agency (EMA) supported the extension of the current European license of pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech for the use of their vaccines against Covid-19 in children between 5 and 11 years old, although with a lower dose than that used in children over 12 years old.
The injection will be given in two doses, with an interval of three weeks between the first and the secondemphasizes the EMA in a statement, in which it points out that the benefits of vaccinating children in this age group with Pfizer outweigh the risks.
The injection will be given in two doses, with an interval of three weeks between the first and the second.
This conclusion, reached by the Committee on Medicines for Human Use (CHMP), will be sent immediately to the European Commission, which has the last word on the licensing of vaccines authorized in European campaigns.
vaccine effectiveness
O secundary effects The most common findings in clinical trials were similar to those in people over 12 years of age, including tiredness, muscle and headache aches, chills, discomfort and redness at the injection site, effects that are generally “mild or moderate” and get better after a few days.
The main study in nearly 2,000 children aged between 5 and 11 years, with no signs of prior infection, showed that the “immunological response to Comirnaty (the trade name of the vaccine), given at a lower dose in this age group, was comparable to that. observed with the highest dose in people between 16 and 25 years, according to the level of antibodies’ against the coronavirus.
The vaccine was 90.7% effective in preventing symptomatic covid-19, according to the EMA
“The vaccine had a 90.7% effective in the prevention of symptomatic covid-19 (although the real rate could be between 67.7 and 98.3%)”, stresses the agency.
Pfizer is the first vaccine to receive support from European scientists to be administered to children under the age of 11, although the drugmaker Moderna has also asked the EMA to evaluate the possible use of its vaccine between 6 and 11 years, which is still is under study by the CHMP.
What does the Spanish Pediatric Association think?
O AEP recommends the vaccination of all children in this age group, as the vaccine is also approved by the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS), as reported in a press release.
Until now, children have not been the group that most influenced the community behavior of the infection with SARS-CoV-2as they seem to get infected and transmit the disease to a lesser degree than adults. In this population, both the transmissibility and the possibility of infection are lower in younger people than in adults and adolescents.
However, it is possible that these differences are due to different behaviors in both groups (more activities at home and outdoors in younger children versus more group activities and at higher risk of exposure in adolescents).
This means that under current circumstances, where children represent a substantial proportion of the unvaccinated population, the infection can shift to them and they can become a key link in the circulation of the virus.
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