Covid vaccine for children may be out in the second half of 2021, according to an advisor for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to Dr. Jose Romero, the chair of the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices, he expects Covid vaccine for children to be available beginning in the second quarter of next year. He believes that children under the age of 18 could take shots if the vaccines have been proven safe and effective.
“I don’t think we’re going to see it in the first half of this coming year,” he said during an interview on MSNBC, explaining that children could get a Covid-19 vaccine before the fall semester. “We need to see how the studies progress. We need to see that data in order to make sure that it is safe and effective in children.”
Pfizer, which applied for an emergency use application to the Food and Drug Administration for its Covid-19 vaccine on Nov. 20, has been testing children 12 and older.
Covid in children
In August, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association published a state-level data report showing a 90% increase in the number of Covid-19 cases among US children.
In an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Committee on Infectious Diseases vice-chair Dr. Sean O’Leary pointed out that coronavirus cases in children should be taken seriously.
Dr. O’Leary said: “It’s not fair to say that this virus is completely benign in children. We’ve had 90 deaths in children in the US already, in just a few months. Every year we worry about influenza in children, and there are roughly around 100 deaths in children from influenza every year.”
He mentioned that various factors may have contributed to the recent surge in coronavirus infections in children in the past weeks, including increased testing, increased movement among children, and a rise in infection among the general population.
Dr. O’Leary explained: “When you see a lot more infections in the general population, you’re going to see a lot more infections in children. We all have to take this virus seriously, including taking care of our children.”
Data revealed a 40% increase in child cases across the states and cities that were investigated during the same month.
One study revealed that older children can pass the virus just as much as adults. Another study showed that children younger than 5 carry a higher viral load than adults.
Effect of the pandemic on children
A study from the University at Buffalo revealed the negative impact of coronavirus lockdowns on childhood obesity.
The diet, sleep, and physical activity among children with obesity worsened due to the lockdowns imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Published in April in Obesity, the study investigated 41 overweight children. These patients were under confinement throughout March and April in Verona, Italy.
Steven Heymsfield, MD, professor at the Louisiana State University Pennington Biomedical Research Center, and Angelo Pietrobelli, MD, professor at the University of Verona in Italy, led the study.
Findings revealed that children ate an additional meal per day throughout the lockdown, compared to behaviors recorded a year prior.
