America’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is set to deliberate Tuesday on the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine on children ages five through eleven – and according to Israel’s public health chief, the FDA is likely to green light the vaccine for young children.
Speaking with Radio 103FM Tuesday morning, Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis said that it is widely expected that the FDA panel will clear the Pfizer vaccine for use on children 5-11, adding that approval will clear the way for mass vaccination of young children in Israel.
But, Alroy-Preis added, even if the FDA approves the vaccine for children 5-11, it will take time before the vaccines will be offered to healthy children in that age group.
“There are children in that age group who received special permission to get the vaccine because they are at greater risk for serious illness from the coronavirus.”
“I don’t think that within a week and a half we’ll start to vaccine kids here in Israel. I think that there will be serious deliberations,” Alroy-Preis continued. “We want to show all of the information to the scientific community in Israel, to work with the public, and to explain about the vaccine in the near future, during November.”