Dr. Anthony Fauci stated that vaccines may be available to children younger than 12 years old in the fall.
He said that the Pfizer vaccine would likely be available to young children prior to the Moderna vaccine.
Children could have the shot in a perfect timeline by October 31st.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci is the long-serving director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He stated Sunday that a COVID-19 vaccination for children younger than 12 years old would be available in the fall.
"It will definitely be this fall," stated Fauci, chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden during an appearance on ABC News's "This Week."
He said that there would be some variation in the timeline when you discuss vaccine rollouts again. Maybe a couple weeks between Moderna and Pfizer." Martha Raddatz, ABC News, told him.
"So, what you're almost certain to see is that vaccines for children will get enough data to present for safety and immunogenicity sometime in October. But when it gets to Moderna it will likely be a few more weeks," he said.
He stated that data will likely be available in the "mid-to late fall" so that US officials can make the decision to authorize a vaccine for children between 11 and five years of age.
Insider reported that Moderna and Pfizer began enrolling children in vaccine trials in March. Moderna had previously stated that it would have data on its vaccine's efficacy with young children by late fall or early winter. Pfizer, however, expected the data to be available by September.
The US Food and Drug Administration will likely take several weeks to review all data before they make a final decision to grant the emergency use authorization for the use of the vaccines.
According to Scott Gottlieb, former FDA Commissioner, who is currently on the board of Pfizer, children between five and 11 years old could be eligible for the vaccine in the best case scenario. Insider's Aria Bendix reported last Wednesday that the vaccine could also be approved for use by children 6 months to 5 years by November.
