Dr. Hotez urged parents to avoid misinformation and get their younger children vaccinated after Pfizer officially asked the Food and Drug Administration to approve its Covid-19 vaccine with BioNTech for children ages 5-11.
“There’s a story out there that is wrong … that this is a disease that affects only elderly Americans who are over 70 or 80 years old, and we learned from this Delta variant over the summer. . it was never true. ” said Hotez, co-director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Texas Children’s Hospital. “Children have to get this vaccination, so that’s really good news, and hopefully it will be made available to the public shortly after Halloween.”
If the FDA approves the vaccine, 28 million more children would be eligible. Currently, the Pfizer vaccine is only approved for use in children 12 years and older. A key FDA vaccine advisory group is scheduled to meet on October 26th to discuss Pfizer’s data.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, more than 22,000 children have been hospitalized for Covid-19 and 520 have died. Hotez told CNBC The News with Shepard Smith that given these high numbers, the “need” to vaccinate children ages 5-11 is evident.
Hotez brought up another false narrative when it comes to Covid-19 vaccines for children.
“The other disinformation you hear is that we only vaccinate children to protect the adults and that the children are fine and we are just using them as a kind of cannon fodder to protect the adults, and it is.” Nonsense, “said Hotez.
