The Pfizer COVID vaccination may be approved for children aged 5 to 12 by October’

Washington: According to Scott Gottlieb, former chairman of the Food and Drug Administration, Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine is likely to be approved for use in children aged 5 to 12 by October (FDA).

Only one of the three COVID-19 vaccines now in use in the United States, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, has been granted emergency use authorization for children aged 12 and older.

Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson are undertaking clinical trials in children under the age of 12 to assess the safety and efficacy of vaccinations. The Pfizer vaccination for youngsters is expected to produce results in September.

“Pfizer will be able to file data with the FDA sometime next month, and then submit its application to expand its emergency use authorization for its vaccine in children 5 years and older as early as October,” Gottlieb said in an interview with CBS News on Sunday.

“I expect the agency (FDA) will be able to provide an authorization at some point, possibly late fall or early winter.” “And they’re probably going to base their judgment on what the situations throughout the country are, what the urgency is to get to a vaccine for kids,” Gottlieb, a member of Pfizer’s board of directors, said CBC News.

Pfizer has also been testing its COVID-19 injection in children as young as two years old. The findings will be made public in November. If the FDA approves Pfizer’s vaccine in children aged 5 to 11, “that, again, puts you on a schedule that you might start rolling out these immunizations before the end of the year,” Gottlieb said.

Vaccinating younger children against COVID is critical since the highly contagious Delta variant is causing instances, especially among children.

According to Gottlieb, over 300 children are hospitalized each day with Covid-19, and infection rates among youngsters have increased with the reopening of schools.

Gottlieb believes that testing pupils twice a week and putting them in geographic or social pods to reduce intermingling among the entire student population are the two “greatest things” schools can accomplish.

Gottlieb also pushed for students to wear face masks and for schools to increase ventilation, as well as for those who are currently eligible to be vaccinated.