Dr. Anthony Fauci discusses timeline for COVID-19 vaccines for young children

Today, Pfizer-BioNTech, the first pharmaceutical company granted Emergency Use Authorization for a COVID-19 vaccine for those aged 16 years and older, announced that it will be submitting data to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on their COVID-19 vaccine trials for children aged 5 to 11 years by early October. In subsequent weeks, it will be submitting data for children aged 6 months to 5 years old.

As a result, Anthony S. Fauci, MD, the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, says that the FDA could authorize shots for this next group of school-aged children (5 to 11 years) as soon as mid-October.

"I believe it will work out this way, that by the time we get to the mid-fall, October or so, that we will have the capability of giving vaccines [to these younger children]," he said earlier today.

As of this writing, less than 40% of children aged 12 to 17 years are fully vaccinated, with children making up nearly 30% of new COVID-19 cases last week alone.¹

Reference.

1. Percent of people fully vaccinated and cases per 100,000 population, by age, United States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Accessed September 14, 2021. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/09102021/images/intro_09102021.jpg?_=14890?noicon