Covid-19 Policy Update: CDC Recommends Pfizer, Moderna Covid Vaccines for Children Under 5

Saturday 6/18

Under 5s:

CDC Recommends Pfizer, Moderna Covid Vaccines for Children Under 5:

• CDC statement.

• The recommendation followed an unanimous vote earlier today by the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) 

  • Slides from the meeting including this 132 slide deck on Evidence to Recommendation Framework.

• “I am fully confident that vaccines should be recommended,” said Dr. Grace Lee, chairperson of the CDC’s vaccine committee. “We can clearly prevent hospitalizations and deaths. And I believe we have the potential to prevent long-term complications of infections that we don’t yet understand.”

• “Here is an opportunity to prevent a known risk,” said Dr. Beth Bell, a clinical professor at the University of Washington and a member of the committee. “I think we’ve made a big step forward today.”

• “The Pfizer is a three-dose series, but as a three-dose series, it’s quite effective,” said Dr. William Towner, who led vaccine trials for both Moderna and Pfizer at Kaiser Permanente in Southern California."

• "Either vaccine would be better than none, Dr. Towner added. He predicted that some parents may opt for Moderna because bringing children to a pediatrician for two shots is easier than arranging for them to receive three."

• "The advisers debated whether vaccination enhances protection against severe disease in children who have already been infected. There is little information available from children aged 5 to 11, because of the poor uptake of vaccines in that age group."

• American Academy of Pediatrics: "Applauds CDC Approval of Safe, Effective COVID-19 Vaccines for Children Ages 6 Months and Older."

• White House Statement: 

  • "This coming week, parents will be able to start scheduling appointments at places like pediatricians’ offices, children’s hospitals, and pharmacies."

  • "Appointments will ramp up as more doses are shipped out, and in the coming weeks, every parent who wants a vaccine will be able to get one.”

  • “As the vaccination program ramps up, Vaccines.gov will be live next week with vaccine availability and appointments increasing throughout the week."

  The White House @WhiteHouse

  Following the CDC's recommendation for vaccines for kids under 5, for the first time, virtually every American can now access the protections from these lifesaving vaccines. Dr. Ashish Jha explains further:

Rochelle Walensky, MD, MPH @CDCDirector

Today marks an important step in our fight against #COVID19 by making safe & effective vaccines available for children ages 6 months-5 years. On today’s #DirectorDebrief, I discuss the recent recommendation by @CDCgov & the importance of getting children under 5 vaccinated. ⬇️

Key Facts

Via the NYT:

Pfizer-BioNTech

• Age range: Six months through 4 years old.

• Number of shots: Three.

• Spacing of shots: Three weeks between the first and second shots, and at least eight weeks between the second and third.

• Dosage: Three micrograms in each shot. For comparison, children 5 to 11 years old are given two 20-microgram shots; adolescents and adults get two 30-microgram shots.

• Efficacy: Pfizer’s scientists say the vaccine has an overall efficacy of 80 percent in children under 5, but that calculation was based on an extremely small sample of 10 children.

Moderna

• Age range: Six months through 5 years old.

• Number of shots: Two.

• Spacing of shots: Four weeks apart.

• Dosage: Twenty-five micrograms in each shot — half the size of the shots for adults.

• Efficacy: Moderna estimated the vaccine’s efficacy against symptomatic infection at about 51 percent among children ages 6 to 24 months, and 37 percent among children ages 2 through 5.

The best analysis from the presentations and data shared this week come from:

• Emily Oster

• Katelyn Jetelina