{"id":16567,"date":"2021-11-18T18:44:47","date_gmt":"2021-11-19T00:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/?p=16567"},"modified":"2022-01-11T14:37:57","modified_gmt":"2022-01-11T20:37:57","slug":"fda-authorizes-covid-19-vaccine-for-children-ages-5-to-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/2021\/11\/18\/fda-authorizes-covid-19-vaccine-for-children-ages-5-to-11\/","title":{"rendered":"FDA authorizes COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Written by Sophie Rossitto<\/em> | Photo: Background photo created by rawpixel.com – www.freepik.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Oct. 29 authorized emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5-11.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Children can receive the vaccine in a series of two doses given three weeks apart, a press release from the FDA said. The dosage of this vaccine is 10 micrograms, which is lower than the 30 microgram-dose of the vaccine for people ages 12 and older.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Julie Hixson-Wallace of Harding\u2019s College of Pharmacy said she was pleased the COVID-19 vaccine had become available to a wider range of people. Hixson-Wallace has helped to organize vaccine clinics on campus, and she said her team is open to offering the pediatric vaccine at Harding in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe stand ready to provide the vaccine to children ages 5-11 when and if supply of the pediatric Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine becomes available to us at Harding,\u201d Hixson-Wallace wrote in an emailed statement. \u201cWe don’t have any idea when that time may come, but our clinic leaders are readying plans to address serving a younger clientele.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adjunct Bible professor Rachel Howell took her 11-year-old daughter to get vaccinated last week. Howell said although the experience of living through the COVID-19 pandemic has felt long, she was glad the pediatric vaccine became available so quickly, fewer than two years after the first lockdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m just super grateful that all of us, all the way down even to the children, can start to get vaccinated,\u201d Howell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pryor residence life coordinator Mary Margaret Fish has two children, and the oldest one is eligible for the pediatric COVID-19 vaccine. Fish said she was relieved and excited to learn that her child had the option of getting vaccinated against the coronavirus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Fish said she was in the process of considering whether to take her child to get vaccinated. Fish said she would weigh several factors, such as the number of COVID-19 cases in the community and the severity of those cases in young children before making her decision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely still a question that I\u2019m asking and a question that I\u2019m researching,\u201d Fish said. \u201cIt was a lot easier to make the choice for myself than it is for another person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FDA press release said the organization authorized the pediatric COVID-19 vaccine after considering data from a controlled study, as well as input from members of an independent advisory committee who voted to make the vaccine available for children between 5 and 11 years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The press release said that in an ongoing study of about 3,100 children in this age range, no participants had experienced serious side effects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Written by Sophie Rossitto | Photo: Background photo created by rawpixel.com – www.freepik.com The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Oct. 29 authorized emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15203,"featured_media":16578,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15203"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16567"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16579,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16567\/revisions\/16579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelink.harding.edu\/the-bison\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}