FDA says ben­e­fits of Covid-19 vac­cine for younger chil­dren out­weigh risks

The FDA said in its analy­sis of Pfiz­er’s da­ta that the ben­e­fits of the 2-dose pri­ma­ry se­ries in chil­dren 5-11 years of age out­weigh the risks, even in sit­u­a­tions where there’s a low num­ber of Covid-19 cas­es cir­cu­lat­ing.

The agency mod­eled six dif­fer­ent sce­nar­ios, look­ing at dif­fer­ent po­ten­tial Covid-19 case­loads — from peak Delta surge to the low­est record­ed in­ci­dence of Covid-19 from last June — find­ing that the ben­e­fits of the vac­cine out­weighed the risks in every sce­nario, and “the over­all ben­e­fits of the vac­cine may still out­weigh the risks un­der this low­est in­ci­dence sce­nario.”

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