Parents around the country likely breathed a sigh of relief yesterday, when an expert panel convened by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) voted unanimously to recommend authorizing COVID-19 vaccines for kids as young as 6 months. Shots made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna could be available to young children as soon as next week, if the FDA follows its panel’s advice (as it usually does) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the vaccines (as it is expected to).
With their year-plus wait for shots likely to end soon, parents will have a choice to make: Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna?
One of the biggest differences between the vaccines is the number of doses required. Children who get Pfizer-BioNTech will need three doses, while those who get Moderna will need only two. That’s because Pfizer-BioNTech’s shot—which is given in tiny doses, even smaller than Moderna’s kid-sized ones—didn’t provoke a strong immune response after two jabs in trials.
That was a topic of concern among the FDA’s advisers yesterday. Some of those independent experts worried that parents won’t realize their kids don’t have strong protection after two Pfizer-BioNTech doses, while others feared it would be an uphill battle to get little kids in for three different vaccination appointments—to say nothing of boosters, which may eventually be recommended for this age group, too.
On the other hand, preliminary data suggest that Pfizer-BioNTech’s three-dose regimen may be better at preventing symptomatic disease than Moderna’s two-shot schedule. However, those calculations were based on the results of manufacturer trials during which there were only a small number of positive cases, so it’s hard to say for sure.
Though the intricacies can be confusing, having two different vaccines for young children on the brink of authorization is a landmark moment in the pandemic. The FDA’s advisory committee members widely acknowledged the importance of allowing parents to protect their kids—not just in terms of preventing COVID-19, but also for restoring some peace of mind for families that have been worried about their youngest members for the last two years.
A quick programming note: We will be off on Monday in observance of Juneteenth. We'll be back with you on Tuesday, June 21.
TODAY'S CORONAVIRUS OUTLOOK
More than 537.3 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 10 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 6.3 million people have died. On June 15, there were 714,687 new cases and 2,028 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending, in terms of cases:
And in terms of deaths:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here's every country that has reported over 10 million cases:
The U.S. had recorded more than 85.9 million coronavirus cases as of 10 a.m. E.T. today. More than 1 million people have died. On June 15, 183,097 new cases were reported and 682 new deaths were confirmed in the U.S.
Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending in terms of cases:
And in terms of deaths:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of June 16, 12 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
It’s been a busy week for the FDA’s vaccine experts. In addition to yesterday’s vote recommending vaccines for kids under 5, the committee on Tuesday unanimously voted in favor of authorizing Moderna’s vaccine for children ages 6 to 17. If the FDA and CDC follow suit, Moderna’s shot will become the second vaccine—alongside Pfizer-BioNTech’s—available to U.S. kids and adolescents.
As the virus continues to mutate, there’s a pair of new variants to know about: BA.4 and BA.5, Omicron descendents that now account for more than 20% of U.S. COVID-19 cases. Like BA.2.12.1, which caused an uptick in cases earlier this spring, these subvariants appear to be better than previous strains at bypassing antibodies gained from vaccination or previous infection—so even if you caught the original Omicron strain earlier this year, you may come down with another case as BA.4 and BA.5 spread.
The antiviral drug Paxlovid provides little benefit for people who aren’t at high risk of severe COVID-19, according to data released by manufacturer Pfizer this week . The drug drastically reduces the odds of hospitalization and death for high-risk people, such as elderly adults or those with underlying medical conditions. But in a study of lower-risk people, Paxlovid didn’t lessen individuals’ symptoms or lead to a statistically significant drop in hospitalization or death risk. (That doesn’t mean hospitalization or death are common for low-risk people, though; few healthy people in the trial developed severe disease.) The results are a blow to Pfizer and experts who called for more widespread use of the antiviral.
After leading the U.S. pandemic response for more than two years, Dr. Anthony Fauci has tested positive for COVID-19, the U.S. National Institutes of Health announced yesterday. Fauci, who is 81, has received four vaccine doses and is reportedly experiencing mild symptoms.
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Today's newsletter was written by Jamie Ducharme and edited by Elijah Wolfson.
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