ABC News: FDA authorizes COVID-19 vaccine for kids 5-11

The day that parents, caregivers, teachers, and children have been waiting for has finally come. 28 million Americans who are among the last ones to be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine will finally be able to do so. The vaccine rollout for children is set to begin sometime next week with the hopes of them reaching the “fully vaccinated” status by December. The goal is to begin the distribution of vaccines immediately. The final signoff from the CDC Director Rochelle Walensy is expected next week after the advisory committee for the CDC concludes their recommendation on pediatric vaccine safety and efficacy data. The White House has purchased enough shots for all 28 million 5-11-year-olds and is currently preparing to purchase 50 million more shots by April 2022 with the anticipation that the authorization for those under 5 follows suit. According to data from Pfizer-BioNTech, none of the 3,100 kids who received the company’s pediatric vaccine during the clinical trials have experienced serious side effects. Today, nearly 2 million kids, ages 5-11, have tested COVID-19 possessive and 8,300 of those have been hospitalized. Approximately a third of these children had to transport to the ICU with over 100 of them not surviving. This authorization will undoubtedly play a major part in getting the nation on the path to normalcy. Read the full article here