|
 The
Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) provides
recommendations to the CDC that many states will consider as they
begin administering the two-shot vaccine to adolescents this week.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the vaccine for use
in the younger age group on Monday, offering relief to parents eager
to get their children back to schools and summer camps.
About one in three Americans have been fully-vaccinated according to
the CDC data. But the pace of vaccination has slowed in the recent
weeks.
The rollout of a vaccine for adolescents should help further limit
the spread of the virus at a time when more contagious variants are
circulating, and could shorten the road to normalcy for Americans.
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"I think we should be in full school, full in-person school, in the
fall," CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said at a CNBC health summit
on Tuesday.
Children have been considered by health officials as being at a
lower risk for severe COVID-19, but they can still spread the virus.
Pfizer is running a separate trial testing the vaccine in children
as young as 6-months-old, and has said it expects data on its use in
2- to 11-year-olds in September. The 12-to-15 age group were tested
as an expansion of Pfizer's more than 46,000-person trial.
The committee will hear from Pfizer about the vaccine's safety and
efficacy in adolescents and will consider the views of a handful of
CDC officials on its implementation.
(Reporting by Manojna Maddipatla in Bengaluru; Editing by Caroline
Humer and Bill Berkrot)
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