Pfizer COVID-19 Pediatric vials packaging & labelling.
(Pfizer)
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisers, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, is schedule to vote Tuesday whether to recommend Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. It’s the last step before CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky will make a final decision on the vaccine.
In the meeting that will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET, Pfizer will present its data to the advisers in the morning. In the afternoon, the committee will hear from the CDC, which will discuss the overall need young children have for this vaccine, as well as any potential side effects.
One side effect under discussion is the risk of myocarditis – an inflammatory heart condition. It’s rare but has been seen in some?adolescents?and adults?who got the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.??
Dr. Grace Lee, the chair of the committee, told CNN while data is limited, the?surveillance?systems in place are doing a good job picking up on vaccine safety signals. She said the CDC is also doing a long-term study of people who develop myocarditis after vaccination.?
Dr. William Schaffner, the chair of the department of preventative medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and a committee liaison who does not vote,?said he thinks?a couple voting members may voice concern about myocarditis, but he thinks the committee will vote overwhelmingly in favor of the vaccine.?
Noting that generally myocarditis occurs less often in this younger population,?Schaffner said?he?thinks that?the theoretical risk of myocarditis is outweighed by the benefits of the vaccine.
“It outweighs it enormously,” Schaffner told CNN. “I think there isn’t any doubt.”?
Lee said the committee members will have to make a decision about the vaccine for children even though they don’t have all the data about the impact of Covid-19 on children.?For example, it’s unclear what the impact of long-haul Covid-19?is?on?children or?the?full?impact of missing school when?children?are out sick with Covid-19.?
“I think decision making under uncertainty creates many challenges,” Lee, a professor of pediatric infectious diseases at Stanford University, told CNN. “For much of the pandemic, what we’ve seen ACIP do is struggle with the data that exists and the data we would like to have.”
But she thinks ultimately, a decision has to be made.
“Not making a decision is in and of itself a decision,” Lee said.
“At the end of the day, we will get to endorsing this vaccine and recommending its use in children ages 5-11, but I think there will be a little bit of this discussion off to the side,” Schaffner said. “I think the vote will be overwhelmingly in favor. I can’t predict that it will be unanimous.”