Chief Medical Advisor to the POTUS Anthony Fauci says that American babies and toddlers could receive the COVID vaccine by the first quarter of 2022, assuming everything goes according to plan.
“Hopefully, within a reasonably short period of time, likely the beginning of next year in 2022, in the first quarter of 2022, it will be available to them,” Fauci told Business Insider.
“Can’t guarantee it,” he added, “you’ve got to do the clinical trial.”
This new benchmark comes less than a month after the CDC approved the Pfizer vaccine for children aged 5 to 11, despite the negligible risk of COVID-19 for this age group, especially for those younger.
Nonetheless, thanks mainly to a media campaign of fear, some parents are convinced that giving their children experimental mRNA technology that carries significant side effects is necessary to protect them against a virus with a fraction of percent of the risk.
“It will allow parents to end months of anxious worrying about their kids, and reduce the extent to which children spread the virus to others,” President Joe Biden said in a statement, adding that it is a “major step forward.
Pfizer has yet to finish studies or submit clinical trial data on even the short-term effects of their vaccine on those under the age of 5 but suggested that they might apply for Emergency Use Authorization with the FDA, according to Business Insider.
“We don’t have enough data now to present it for a regulatory approach, but right now, the data are being collected and analyzed,” Fauci told CNN earlier in November.
“So we will be able to answer the question, I believe, within a reasonable period of time regarding the safety and the immunogenicity among those lower than five years old.”
