On Monday, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the use of the dual dose Pfizer vaccine in 12 to 15 year olds. The decision is aimed at younger people in the hopes of hastening the country’s return to normalcy and recovery from the pandemic.
The CDC advisory panel will still meet in the coming week to review the approval, and is expected to approve the use in 12 to 15 year old adolescents.
President of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Dr. Lee Savio Beers said in an interview with US News: “It's essential for children to be vaccinated against COVID-19. According to data compiled by the AAP and Children's Hospital Association, more than 3.8 million children have tested positive for COVID-19 in the United States since the start of the pandemic.”
Beers went on to say that while the disease is not usually as fatal in children, thousands have still been hospitalized with the virus. He hopes that the approval of the vaccine in younger adolescents will “prevent so much suffering.”
This decision could also expedite the reopening of schools in the Fall, with a lowered likelihood of transmission in those who have received their full vaccination.
The FDA approval follows a clinical trial of over 2000 participants in this age group, wherein side effects were comparable to those aged 16-25 receiving the vaccine -- though fevers were slightly more common in the younger group.
Want to learn more?
In addition to reporting clinical trial news and stories from within the patient community, we operate Citrus, a fully integrated recruitment and retention software. Citrus fits any clinical trial and simplifies the implementation of patient engagement in your clinical trial. Whether you are already working with CTMS systems or not, Citrus is the perfect add-on to make patient interaction effective.
Since 2015, our team has been hard at work raising awareness of clinical trials across the globe. A Forbes ‘30 Under 30’ company and a graduate of the renowned Techstar program in New York, Citruslabs is at the forefront of patient recruitment and retention technologies. With over 3 million patients now recorded on our databases, our patient recruitment dashboard is fast becoming the most efficient method of trial recruitment.
Now a #1 health app in 17 countries, our Mindmate app is helping to revolutionize the way we think about healthcare. Mindmate “[takes] senior care into the digital age” (Forbes, 2018) by providing people with the cognitive decline the essential tools to help them rebuild and maintain strong mental health. Trusted by millions of users, our health community continues to grow as the content available expands to the needs of individuals today.
With more than 200 research sites now using the Citrus platform to screen thousands of patients every month, researchers are now well on their way to finding new treatments for hundreds of different health conditions - something that just would not be possible without a technological solution. Make sure that your clinical trial is in the lucky 12% and turn that luck into guaranteed results with Citrus.
Comments