Pfizer says the COVID-19 vaccine will work at ages 12-15

Pfizer Corona Virus The vaccine works very well in children between the ages of 12 and 15, the giant drugs mentioned Wednesday.

Pfizer said in a press release that in a late-stage trial that studied more than 2,200 teenagers in the United States, no vaccinated person had developed COVID-19. The results indicate that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine may be more effective in subjects between the ages of 12 and 15 years compared to adults.

Pfizer has not released trial data yet. Chief Executive Albert Burla said that the company plans to present the results to the Food and Drug Administration in the coming weeks, “hoping to start vaccinating this age group before the start of the next school year.”

If granted emergency clearance, the Pfizer vaccine would be the first vaccine in the United States given to children under the age of 16. Public health experts Believe That vaccinating children will be crucial to achieving “herd immunity” – when so many people have immunity to COVID-19 that the virus is no longer able to spread effectively. President Joe Biden has called for high school students to be immunized by the fall in the United States and elementary schools in early 2022, if results from experiments such as those announced by Pfizer show that vaccines are indeed safe and effective between them.

Pfizer said the trial showed that the vaccine was safe for people between the ages of 12 and 15, with side effects “generally consistent with those observed in participants between the ages of 16 and 25.”

Pfizer vaccine It was first licensed for emergency use For people 16 years of age or older in December, Americans have had more than 75 million doses since then. a Clinical trial It was found last fall to be 95% effective in reducing COVID-19 infection in adults; A recent study showed similar results of 90% inThe real worldSince its license.

In the announcement, Pfizer also said it has started vaccinating children ages 5-11 in a related global trial and next week it will begin administering it to a group of children between the ages of 2 and 5.