US authorizes Pfizer Covid vaccine for children 5-11Aiden Arthurs receives the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine from Pharmacist Andrew Mac (R) at the Jewish Federation/JARC's offices in Bloomfield Hills, MichiganWASHINGTON - The United States on Friday authorized the Pfizer Covid vaccine for children aged five-to-11, paving the way for 28 million young Americans to soon get immunized. The United States follows only a handful of other countries including China, Chile, Cuba and the United Arab Emirates that are inoculating younger children with various vaccines. Pfizer and its partner BioNTech announced this week the US government had bought 50 million more doses as it works to protect children, including eventually those under five. According to the CDC, there have been 8,300 Covid hospitalizations of children aged five-to-11 since the start of the pandemic, and 146 deaths. The United States is emerging from its latest coronavirus wave, driven by the Delta-variant.

Source: Bangkok Post October 29, 2021 23:50 UTC