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COVID vaccines needed for younger children, South Florida doctors say

Pfizer shots may be deemed safe for kids ages 5-11 next month

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – Pfizer says it expects to file safety and efficacy data for its COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 in early October, and for those as young as 6 months old in the weeks after.

Doctors say it is a critical next step in protecting against the virus.

“We have seen very, very sick patients, pediatric patients, in our hospital,” said Dr. Hanadys Ale, a pediatric immunologist at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, where on Wednesday they had 15 patients fighting COVID-19. “If we can save one child of not getting severe COVID and not succumbing to COVID, I think we have done something positive, something important.”

And that’s not just coming from a doctor and expert, but from a mom who says she believes in vaccines. So much so she has enrolled her 1-year-old son in vaccine clinical trials.

“I got vaccinated myself,” Ale said. “He was newborn when I got the vaccine, and I breastfed him [so] that my antibodies are going to pass to him.”

At the beginning of the pandemic, children were not as affected as adults, often asymptomatic carriers of COVID-19.

But said says the delta variant has changed that, and kids are getting sicker.

COVID cases among kids in the United States jumped 240% in just the past six weeks.

In Florida, the age group with the most new COVID-19 cases last week was the under-12 population that is ineligible to be vaccinated. The state said that 17,165 children under 12 became infected with the virus from Sept. 3-9.

So why are ages 5 to 11 the next step?

“It’s sort of a group that has more or less the same physiology,” said Dr. Aileen Marty, infectious disease expert at Florida International University.

She says including a new age group means a higher percentage vaccinated, making it harder for the virus to spread, or worse yet, mutate into a deadlier form.

It could also lead to fewer COVID-19 cases in schools.

“Getting those individuals vaccinated will facilitate everything else,” Marty said.

WATCH MORE: Dr. Hanadys Ale addresses frequently asked questions she gets from parents regarding COVID vaccines

WATCH MORE: Dr. Aileen Marty discusses messenger RNA vaccines in greater detail


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