Washington: Following months of anxiety for American parents, a panel of experts organized by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) met on Wednesday to look into recommending COVID-19 vaccines for children under 5 years old. Children under the age of 5 are the only age group who are currently ineligible for COVID-19 vaccines. If approved, vaccines would then be available to all age groups in the US. If the committee of experts vote in favor of the BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, formal authorization is expected to quickly follow and the first jabs could be administered as soon as next week. At the start of the meeting, Peter Marks, a senior scientist with the FDA, said that even though the majority of children have had COVID-19, the high rate of hospitalizations among those under five during the Omicron wave last winter highlights the need for immediate action.
“We have to be careful we don’t become numb to the pediatric deaths because of the overwhelming number of older deaths,” Marks said. “Every life is important and vaccine-preventable deaths are something we would like to try to do something about.” The US has seen 480 children under five die of COVID-19 during the pandemic, according to official statistics. The number is far higher than during even a “terrible flu season” like the one in 2009-2010 during the H1N1 bird flu strain. By contrast, 78 young children died of bird flu. “Each child that’s lost essentially fractures a family,” Marks said.
