ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — The Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory board is expected to meet this week to review whether to provide emergency-use authorization for Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for 5- to 11-year-olds.

What You Need To Know

  • The FDA is expected to consider a COVID-19 vaccine for 5- to 11-year-olds

  • If the Pfizer vaccine is approved by the advisory panel, it will go to the CDC

  • The CC advisory panel meetings are scheduled for Nov. 2-3

  • After the vaccine is cleared for emergency use, it could be available right away

Dosage for children would be lower than for adults and adolescents. The Pfizer vaccine for anyone age 12 and up is a 30-microgram dose. The proposed dosage for the younger age group is 10 micrograms.

Pfizer data shows the vaccine’s efficacy for 5- to 11-year olds is about 90.7%

About 28 million children in the United States would be eligible in that age group.

When the White House unveiled its rollout plan for children’s vaccinations last week, President Joe Biden said there will be enough vaccine for all eligible children.

That proposal also includes making the vaccine, and education about it, easy and accessible for families.

One pediatrician said the biggest hurdle might be convincing parents.

He emphasized that the vaccine is safe for their children and is something they should seek out for them.

“Since the safety profile is almost identical to that in adults, there’s no reason to believe this vaccine shouldn’t be as useful in children as it is in adults,” according to pediatric infectious disease expert Dr. Michael Muszynski.

If the FDA’s vaccine advisory board approves the proposal, it then goes to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention independent advisory committee to review for official recommendation.

Those meetings are scheduled to happen Nov. 2-3.

After the CDC director signs off, children could start getting vaccines immediately.​