The Pfizer vaccine is authorized for young Europeans aged 12 to 15 by the European Medicines Agency.
An expected decision
All of Europe was held in suspense pending the decision of the European Medicines Agency. The health authority today declared itself in favor of the use of the Pfizer vaccine in adolescents aged 12 to 15 years. The Comirnaty serum is therefore the first to be administered to young people in Europe. The EMA specified in its press release that “The recommended use of the Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine in children 12 to 15 years old will be the same as in people 16 years of age and older. It is given as two injections into the muscles of the arm, at least 3 weeks old. interval“.
Until then, you had to be 16 years old to receive an injection. The National Academy of Medicine recently recommended the vaccination of people in this age group in order to achieve collective immunity, necessary to stop viral circulation.
In other countries, such as the United States, the Pfizer / BioNtech vaccine has been inoculated from the age of 12 for three weeks.
What are the known side effects in adolescents?
The two laboratories, Pfizer and BioNtech, conducted a phase 3 clinical study in young people under the age of 16. In total, nearly 2,000 adolescents received either two doses of the vaccine or a placebo. The results were published online on May 12. The vaccine is fairly well tolerated in young people. The side effects experienced were mainly local reactions after the first injection, such as pain, swelling or redness at the injection site. However, other symptoms appeared more frequently after the second dose, such as fatigue, headache, chills, muscle pain, high temperature and joint pain. According to the study, no serious side effects were reported in 12-15 year olds.
Regarding the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine in adolescents, the health authority indicates that “of the 1,005 children receiving the vaccine, none developed COVID-19 compared to 16 of the 978 children who received the dummy injection“. And to specify that”this means that, in this study, the vaccine was 100% effective in preventing COVID-19 (although the actual rate could be between 75% and 100%)“.
The High Authority of Health should give its opinion in the coming days, for a vaccination against Covid-19 in the young French.
