Categories: Top News

Entities approve release of Pfizer vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years

Entities approve release of Pfizer vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years

Health entities and civil society approved the decision of Anvisa, which released, this Thursday (16), the immunizing agent from Pfizer for vaccination against Covid-19 in the age group from 5 to 11 years old. The Brazilian Society of Immunizations (SBIm) sees the measure as ‘extremely important’.

The decision of the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) was released this Thursday, after a technical evaluation of the request submitted by the pharmaceutical company on November 12th. The dose for people between 5 and 11 years will be modified and lower than for people over 12 years. The laboratory explained that this adjustment is due to a new formulation developed by the company.

“Children are also hospitalized, die, have a long Covid… We have plenty of justification to vaccinate this group. So far, in the United States and Canada, we have not had any problems”, stated the director of SBIm Renato Kfouri.

In addition to the United States and Canada, countries such as Cuba, Chile, China, El Salvador and the United Arab Emirates have already started vaccinating children under 12 with Pfizer and other immunizing agents, such as Coronavac. European Union countries, including Spain, Greece, Hungary and Germany, too.

The Instituto Lagarta turns Pupa, which supports families of children with disabilities, even created an online petition to defend the approval of Pfizer’s immunizing agent for the age group.

“We arrived at the end of 2021 with a backdrop of end-of-year parties, school holidays, possible Carnival parties and full attendance back in schools with a new highly contagious variant circulating: Ômicron. As much as the severity of Covid in children may be less than in the elderly, there is no plausible justification for submitting children to a condition of illness and hospital admissions, as there is already a vaccine available for their age group. We want the approval of Pfizer’s vaccine for the age group from 5 to 11 years old and the inclusion of this public immediately in the PNI”, says the institution’s manifesto.

The SBIm highlights that children with comorbidities have twice the risk for Covid-19, and reinforces the importance of the vaccine, especially for this specific group.

The number of hospitalizations of children and adolescents by Covid-19 in 2021 exceeds the total for 2020 in Brazil. Until the last week of December last year, there were 14,638 hospitalizations. However, until August of this year, 16,246 had already been registered, a growth of almost 11% from one year to the next. Deaths from the disease among the group also exceed last year.

The Butantan Institute wants to be the next to have the immunizing agent evaluated for the public. Last Wednesday (15), Anvisa received a new official request for the use of Coronavac in the vaccination of children and young people aged between three and 17 years.

*Under supervision of Pauline Almeida

Reference: CNN Brasil