Following the endorsement, shots should become available to the general public within weeks.
Data presented at the June 16 panel clarified the February Pfizer decision. Two doses of the vaccine only reduced symptomatic illness in the younger population by 14 percent—a weak result, even ignoring the extremely high bar of 90-plus percent efficacy set by the adult mRNA vaccines. But with three doses, Pfizer has now increased the efficacy against symptomatic illness to 80 percent. Meanwhile, Moderna’s two-dose regimen showed a 40 percent reduction in kids’ chances of falling ill.
Both of the efficacy findings are bracketed by huge amounts of uncertainty. While the companies included tens of thousands of participants in clinical trials for adults’ vaccines, they only had several thousand for each of the kids’ vaccines. At the same time, the trials only tested for COVID in kids who exhibited symptoms, even thoughare asymptomatic.
But the FDA advisors were convinced of the vaccines’ efficacies, in part, because of the antibody levels in vaccinated children that participated in the trials. Those antibodies roughly corresponded to what’s seen in adults, and representatives for the companies said they believed the pediatric vaccines would confer similar real-world protection against severe illness.
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