- Child deaths due to Covid-19,are the motivation for authorizing a vaccine in children, the US Food and Drug Administration’s top vaccine official said.
- Children could have a vaccine by early November, health experts say
FDA vaccines head says US child Covid-19 deaths are an ’embarrassment,’ reports CNN.
About the death toll
“In this latest wave of Covid-19, particularly down south, there have been thousands of children hospitalized. And, frankly, it’s an embarrassment in a developed country to have even 100 children, like we’ve had, die of infectious disease that’s preventable,” Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Director Dr. Peter Marks said in a town hall hosted by the Covid-19 Vaccine Education and Equity Project.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 645 children have died from Covid-19 in the US.
“No parent should have to lose their child to a vaccine-preventable illness if we have a vaccine that can be deployed that is safe and effective. And we will only allow something to be authorized that we find to be safe and effective,” Marks said.
COVID-19 in children
Children under 18 make up 22% of the US population but account for 27% of all cases nationwide, according to data published Monday by the American Academy of Pediatrics, and new infections among children remain “exceptionally high,” the organization said.
And although those cases are less likely to be severe or result in death, children can end up with long-term symptoms.
“I think we have underestimated the impact on children,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Monday. “Look at the pediatric hospitals throughout the country , they’re seeing a lot of children in the hospital with severe infection.”
Vaccination authorization
Children could have a vaccine by early November, health experts say.
Vaccines are only available to children as young as 12. But health officials hope that will soon change.
The US Food and Drug Administration said Friday its vaccine advisers will meet October 26 to discuss data from Pfizer’s vaccine trial among children 5 to 11.
There are still a few steps on the vaccine’s way to authorization. The FDA vaccine advisers would have to first make a recommendation, and the FDA would vote on it.
Then, the CDC would have to sign off before children ages 5 to 11 could start getting vaccinated.
“Most of us in the public health community are expecting that we’ll see approvals of vaccines for this younger age groups sometime in early November,” said Dr. Megan Ranney, the Associate Dean of Strategy and Innovation for the School of Public Health at Brown University.
And once a vaccine is made available to younger children, it would be up to parents to decide, which may prove to be an obstacle.
Infection rates nationwide are declining
After weeks of a troubling Covid-19 surge across the US, infection rates are finally on the decline — but experts say there’s still work to be done before the tide can be turned, especially when cases remain exceptionally high among children.
“I am worried that we still have some tough days ahead,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, the Dean at Brown University School of Public Health. “Even though we’re doing reasonably well on vaccines, we’ve got to do much better because the Delta variant is very good at finding people who are unvaccinated and infecting them.”
On average, about 105,054 people are reported to have new Covid-19 infections every day, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The new antiviral drug
An antiviral drug promises to reduce impacts of the infection, but experts warn that it is not a replacement for vaccines.
On Friday, the pharmaceutical company Merck said molnupiravir, an investigational antiviral drug made by Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, can reduce the risk of hospitalization or death from Covid-19 by half.
But full data from the molnupiravir trial had not yet been released or peer-reviewed. And it’s not clear if or when the pill might be authorized by the FDA to fight Covid-19.
“This pill is terrific and, as an ER doctor, I cannot wait to have this as another tool in my toolbox to give to patients who are sick with Covid-19,” Ranney said. “But better than taking a pill is not getting sick in the first place which means getting vaccinated.”
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Source: CNN
