The Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 has been approved by the European Medicines Regulator, paving the way for vaccination among this age group in the European Union.
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) explained.
This mRNA vaccine is already allowed for children over 12 years old in the 27 European Union countries.
Outside of continental Europe, the Pfizer vaccine has already been approved for children ages 5 to 11 in a small number of countries, including the United States, Israel and Canada.
two injections
The European regulator explained that children between the ages of 5 and 11 years will get a third of the dose used for the elderly, in two injections three weeks apart.
He added that the vaccine proved to be 90.7% effective in a trial that included 2,000 children in this age group. Side effects are categorized as ‘mild or moderate’. It can last for a few days and may manifest as localized pain at the injection site, fatigue, headache, muscle pain, or a cold.
According to the press release, the regulator “concluded that the benefits of coumatoids in children aged 5 to 11 years outweigh the risks, particularly in those with comorbidities that increase the risk of severe form of Covid-19.”
Strong growth in children under 12 years old
The authorities made it clear earlier this week that in the Netherlands, a country facing an epidemic recovery, where the European Agency is headquartered, children under the age of 12 are the group in which the virus is currently developing fastest.
Four vaccines are currently authorized in the general population by the regulator: those from Pfizer and Moderna, based on the messenger RNA principle, and those from AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, which use “non-reproductive virus vector” technology, based on an adenocarcinoma.