COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Pfizer vaccine for COVID-19 gives children ages 5-11 a new way of fending off infection or hospitalization. It could be a difference-maker in the next phase of the pandemic.
Doctor Anup Kanodia of OhioHealth and KanodiaMD says this now makes 28 million children in the United States eligible.
“The studies were done, two different studies, which totaled 4,500 kids,” said Kanodia. “We've had data that looked at 12-year-olds to 15, and then 16, and 17-year-olds, what we find is a lot of that data, actually can correlate to data between five and 11-year-olds.
As of Oct. 28, nearly 6.4 million children have tested positive for COVID-19 and for children ages 5 to 11, about 1.9 million have been infected, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. AAP says clinical trials for this age group found the vaccine to be 90.7 percent effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19.
“It's kind of interesting when you actually look at the data, that for every million kids that get the vaccine, you can prevent 18,000 kids are actually getting it at hospitalizations, and 26 kids going into the ICU,” said Kanodia. “This is really powerful in terms of what it can do for young kids. When comparing to like, the other types of vaccines we give to kids you know, the polio, the mumps, and rubella. This is 300% better at preventing death than any other vaccine that we currently give to kids.”
Kanodia says parents should keep in mind that AAP recommends children get their second dose 21 days following their first dose.