The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee meets Tuesday for an all-day meeting on Pfizer and BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine for kids ages 5 to 11.
Many parents are anxiously awaiting the approval with schools now open across the U.S. and the delta variant driving a surge in children’s cases.
The White House outlined its plan last week to distribute the doses as soon as it’s authorized by the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is expected to come early next month. The Biden administration said it’s procured enough vaccine to inoculate all 28 million 5- to 11-year-olds in the U.S., and will distribute it in smaller dosing and with smaller needles to make it easier for pediatricians and pharmacists to administer to kids.
The meeting starts at 8:30 a.m. ET and is scheduled to wrap up around 5 p.m. with votes on whether to recommend the shots at the end of the day. The FDA is expected to quickly grant emergency approval for the shots before passing the matter on to the CDC for review next week.
