With almost two years into the pandemic of Covid-19, everyone is desperate to get out of it and come back to a pre-Covid life that allowed them to be out and about. Many fully vaccinated parents with young children are too nervous to hang out at public places like theme parks, picnic areas or even the mall, as the infants and toddlers are not vaccinated and lack the required antibodies to fight off the Coronavirus. This soon may change as Pfizer pushes for approval of a very low dose of COVID-19 vaccine, but it still has a few steps ahead.
Presently Pfizer has conducted clinical trials of an extra-low dose vaccine for children between 6 months and 4 years of age and has submitted a request to the Food and Drug Administration for approval and authorization for use. If all goes well, parents may be able to get their very young children vaccinated as early as March this year.
However, before approval FDA has a panel of advisors who will review all the case studies and the clinical trials. After their review and approval, the Center for Disease Control will have their own expert panel review the findings and decide on approval. They will see if the vaccine can be approved for all children or only for those at high risk, with a weak immune system.
After this multistep careful review and hopefully authorization, an extremely low dose of the COVID-19 vaccine will be available in a series of two doses for infants of 6 months and shall become part of immunization regime given at pediatrician offices. Shot for children of 6-month age is one tenth of the adult dose. The vaccine previously approved for children of 5-11 years, was one third the adult dose.
Present research and clinical trials of Pfizer also indicate that the extra low dose may be strong enough to protect babies of 6 months but may not be strong enough to give complete protection to children that are in the 2-4 years range. They may require a third dose for complete protection. Now Pfizer has added a third dose of the vaccine to their study and the ongoing clinical trial results may not be available till late March.
It is certainly a step in the right direction and clinicians and scientists remain optimistic that the future does have a ray of hope, of getting out of the pandemic completely.
Soon, with full vaccine protection of adults, teenagers, children, infants and toddlers, everyone will be able to go back to their pre-Covid life full of fun with parties, picnics, play dates, and unmasked hanging out frequently with friends and family.
Stay tuned for a time to be able to shake hands instead of brushing elbows and giving hugs. It is round the corner now!
Thank you, Dr. Ahmed, for keeping us informed of the rapid developments in the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19. Your blog is my one-stop for all the information I need on COVID-19.
Glad to be of assistance, please do reach out for any questions you might have about the contents of the blog or any other aspect of the pandemic. Thank you for your encouragement!
Thank you for answering our questions
Glad to be of help, please do not hesitate in asking if you have more questions.
Thanks for the update and yes parents of young children are very nervous. Young children remain unvaccinated posing risks not just for themselves ,their parents but also elderly grandparents at home. We are hoping that vaccinations for younger children are made available not only in the US but also abroad .
I hope so too. I think its round the corner now.
Thank you, Dr. Anika, this is the much-needed information at these challenging times. Great work!
Thank you for your encouragement.
Great information! Thanks for sharing.
Great news! Waiting for my grandchildren to get vaccinated.
Coming your way soon. Stay tuned.
Dr. Ahmed, thank you for your latest article! Your blog is always highly informative, practical and very well written. I thoroughly enjoy tuning in to remain informed about COVID-19 and your tips make me feel so much more at ease with navigating life through a pandemic. I cannot thank you or impart to you enough how valuable your articles are! My sincerest admiration and thanks.
Dr. Ahmed, thank you for your latest article! Your blog is always highly informative, practical and very well written. I thoroughly enjoy tuning in to remain informed about COVID-19 and your tips make me feel so much more at ease with navigating life through a pandemic. I cannot thank you or impart to you enough how valuable your articles are! My sincerest admiration and thanks.
Thank you for your encouraging feedback. Please do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. Stay safe.
Interesting step by the government! I do however wonder how this will play out in nurseries/day cares/schools – children of unvaccinated adults will of course be unvaccinated and those who vaccinate their children will not want them around the unvaccinated kids since they like to play in close proximity to each other and thus infect each other more readily – an interesting future dilemma for the schools to contend with I think! Your thoughts Dr. Ahmed?
So true. This is a situation that parents and children will come across in nurseries/ day cares and presently it is seen in schools where children are showing up for in person classes. There remains a mix of vaccinated and unvaccinated children. Vaccination is a choice and although it is strongly encouraged by the health authorities, there still remains a significant unvaccinated population. These mix crowds will lead to cross infections, with vaccinated children ending up with mild symptoms, whereas the unvaccinated children if infected will show more severe symptoms that could lead to hospitalization, due to complications. This risk may result in parents pulling out their vaccinated children from nurseries/day cares/ schools and they may start looking for other options of child care and education.
Thank you Dr.Anika .I am so appreciative for tackling the current health situation
Great information. Thanks for the update
This is good news. I hope these shots are soon available globally. Thank you for sharing Dr Anika.
Indeed we all hope to have worldwide availability before too long though at this point it is only Pfizer’s vaccine in the pipeline for approval and possible availability in the US as early as March. Thank you for checking in.
Thankyou Dr Anika for the much needed info specially for us in Pakistan where the parents are still confused about getting their children vaccinated particularly the infants & toddlers
Glad to be able to help clarify the consideration for parents, Dr. Rahim. Thank you for your feedback.
As a physician who also happens to be interested in history, I find your blog not just medically informative but also a log the epidemic as it has evolved – quite fascinating and important to students of history and epidemiology.
A privilege to have your interest Dr. Hammad, thank you.
Thank you for this information Dr Ahmed. I know there is significant vaccine disparity throughout the world and it seems like the Pfizer vaccine is the one undergoing trials for infant use. Are there plans to test some of the more globally available vaccines as well?
Pfizer is maintaining the lead on the pediatric vaccine too, having completed the trials and submitted results to the FDA for approval to be followed by the CDC’s approval. Other manufacturers may be at varying stages of clinical trials but none have come forward so far with news of completion of successful trials. Thank you for checking in.