US athourizes Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children age 12-15

US regulators authorized Pfizer and its partner BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for use in children and adolescents age 12 to 15 on Monday.

Acting FDA Commissioner, Janet Woodcock called the expansion a significant step in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

The vaccine by German vaccine maker BioNTech and its US partner Pfizer had previously only been approved in the country for people aged 16 and older.

“Today’s action allows for a younger population to be protected from COVID-19, bringing us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy and to ending the pandemic,” Woodcock said.

The acting commissioner said the agency undertook a rigorous and thorough review of all available data before issuing the extension.

According to the FDA, about 1.5m cases have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in individuals 11 to 17 years of age between March 2020 and April this year.

Among the higher-risk group of those aged 65 and older, 83 per cent have had a first dose and 71 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Since the start of the vaccine drive in mid-December, a total of 261 million doses have been administered in the US, which has a population of 330 million.

The US has recorded 32.5 million cases of COVID-19 and almost 580,000 deaths according to the CDC, both world leading figures.

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