INDIANAPOLIS — The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized the use of COVID-19 vaccines for children aged five to 11.
Vaccine advisors at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will meet on Tuesday to discuss whether they will recommend it.
CDC Director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, will be making the final decision before children can begin to receive them.
Pfizer is now the first COVID-19 vaccine authorized in the United States to be administered to younger children.
Pfizer says a clinical trial showed it provides more than 90% protection against symptomatic disease in children, and vaccines could be administered as soon as the CDC signs off.
"Just for safety's sake and kids do survive having COVID-19 better, but their grandmas might not and so them being vaccinated and protecting the more vulnerable parts of the population are important too," said Christine Scharfenberger, who has been on the front lines at Eskenazi Health since the beginning of the pandemic. "Professionally, it's been our lives for the past couple of years."
She said health professionals have experienced a lot of heartaches watching patients battle COVID-19.
"We are not seeing vaccinated adults dying like unvaccinated people still, just the recovery, the long-term effects," Scharfenberger said. "Nobody knows if that's going to happen to our kids as well."
Scharfenberger has been waiting for the full approval of the vaccine in order to vaccinate her own young children against the virus. Friday's FDA approval was encouraging for her family.
"It's been a long time coming. I think my 9-year-old is as happy as I am," she said. "We have been through a lot personally with COVID-19 as far as losing family members. My grandpa died of COVID-19 in May of 2020 before the vaccine came out."
Her grandmother, who is vaccinated, has been at a local hospital for three weeks fighting COVID-19.
"I think the vaccine made the difference between life and death between the two of them," she said.
Scharfenberger said vaccinating children between the ages of five and 11 will help slow the spread.
"It's time to move on from this. I think kids are a piece of this puzzle as far as getting them back to normal life and us as a world getting through this pandemic," she said.
Upon CDC approval, officials say shots for children could roll out as early as the first or second week in November. Children would receive one-third of the vaccine dose given to teenagers and adults.
In anticipation of the approval, the Indiana Department of Health extended its clinic at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway through Nov. 20 to accommodate
the demand.
