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Dr. Robin’s Covid Updates
Vaccinating the Littles
The Process and the Rationale for the 5-to-11s
I’m a Boston-based cancer doctor and I’ve been writing weekly fact-based-no-blame-no-rumors-all-science-all-the-time essays about Covid-19 since March 2020.
You can read my views on why to get your cold symptoms tested here — or about boosters here — or you can read about vaccines/anti-vaxxers throughout history here
The big news this week is the FDA’s committee’s (VRBPAC) approval of an EUA for the Pfizer vaccine for 5–11 year olds. Next step is the CDC’s ACIP committee’s Nov. 2–3, 2021 meetings looking at the question — and then CDC director Dr Rochelle Walensky’s review and conclusions.
They’ll look at the data about transmission and illness, and they’ll also try to anticipate the “public health consequences” of any guidelines — not just the impact on individual numbers but also on society, on next steps, on the US as a whole.
Although CDC approval isn’t a “slam dunk” — kids are more complex than vulnerable adults — the manufacturer has already begun the process of shipping “pediatric vials.” They are a different dose — one-third the adult dose — so they have their own specially color-coded orange-topped vials.
