COVID-19 Vaccine for Children Gets Approval from FDA Advisers | Are the Pfizer, Moderna Shots Effective?

The Food and Drug Administration advisers have allowed the recommendation of both Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children, which closes the final challenge to getting young Americans vaccinated.

NBC News reported that the Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee had a vote for each vaccine during its Wednesday meeting. The recommendations were unanimous, 21-0.

The votes will now set in motion a process expected to be completed by Tuesday, which can be a relief to parents who have waited for more than a year-and-a-half to vaccinate their children.

FDA will now decide to grant emergency use authorization to the vaccines in the coming days.

In addition, an advisory panel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to vote on whether to endorse the shots on Friday and Saturday.

The final stage of the approval of the COVID-19 vaccines will be a signoff from CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky.

Dr. Ofer Levy, the director of the Precision Vaccines Program at Boston Children's Hospital, said he is really pleased that they have reached this kind of milestone.

COVID-19 Vaccine For Children

FDA's review noted that COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths for children six months to four years old are higher than for children in other age groups despite the babies, toddlers, and preschoolers only making up about three percent of cases in the U.S.

Fox News noted that the health agency said that children who received Pfizer's shots during clinical trials developed high levels of virus-fighting antibodies seen to provide protection against COVID-19.

Pfizer's vaccine was given in three doses and appeared 80 percent effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19. However, the data was based on just 10 cases diagnosed among study participants. It could change as Pfizer's study continues.

Moderna's two-dose vaccine, on the other hand, was only about 40 percent to 50 percent effective at preventing milder infections.

The two companies' vaccines were tested at different points during the pandemic, with different variants spreading at the time of the study.

Pfizer and Moderna

No vaccine has been authorized for children younger than five in the U.S. more than two years into the pandemic.

Dr. Jay Portnoy, a professor of pediatrics at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., said that the death rate from COVID and young children may not be extremely high, but it is "absolutely terrifying to parents to have their child be sick."

Portnoy noted in a New York Times report that parents should be given the choice to vaccinate their children.

Regulators and company officials discussed the side effects caused by Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. The huge majority were mild and tolerated by children in clinical trials. The side effects include irritability and crying, sleepiness, fatigue, and loss of appetite.

Smaller numbers of trial participants experienced fevers. However, those were consistent with the side effects of other pediatric vaccines.

Dr. Peter Marks, the F.D.A.'s top vaccine regulator, said at the meeting that the need to "protect these children from COVID is great."

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

WATCH: FDA advisers recommend Moderna's Covid vaccine for children ages 6 months through 5 - from CNBC Television