Covid-19 vaccines, Delta variant and children: what you need to know

The very contagious Delta variant of Covid-19 crosses the United States, increasing infections, just days before the start of the school year. More and more children are infected with the virus since the strain began circulating this summer. Here’s what you need to know:

Do children receive the Delta variant?

The number of cases of Covid-19 in children has steadily increased since early July, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. After declining in early summer, children’s cases have quadrupled over the past month, from about 38,000 cases the week ended July 22 to 180,000 last week, according to the AAP.

Now that Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine has received full FDA approval, can I get my child under 12 immunized?

The vaccine is now eligible for off-label prescriptions or for use beyond approved populations. This could include booster doses, according to the Food and Drug Administration, but prescribing the vaccine off-label for children would not be appropriate because there is no data on the appropriate dosage or safety in young people, according to the doctor. Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock.

She said more data from ongoing clinical trials is needed to ensure vaccines are safe for children in this age group, for whom vaccines are not cleared for emergency use. .

The AAP also urges parents and doctors not to vaccinate young children at this stage. “We don’t want individual doctors to calculate the doses and dosing schedules one by one for young children based on the vaccine experience in older patients,” said Yvonne Maldonado, chair of the AAP committee. on infectious diseases. “We should do it on the basis of all the evidence for each age group, and for that we need the trials to be completed. I know parents are concerned about protecting their children, but we want to make sure that children benefit fully from ongoing clinical trials, ”she said.