Outside of Europe, this Pfizer immunizer has already been approved for children between the ages of 5 and 11 in a few countries, such as the United States, Israel and Canada.
Children in this age group will receive a third of the dose supplied to the elderly, in two inoculations with three weeks between each other, explained the European regulator.
This vaccine has shown an efficacy of 90.7% in a test carried out on a sample of 2,000 children between these ages, he added.
Covid-19 vaccination begins for children between 5 and 11 years old in the US
Side effects were classified as “mild to moderate.” They can last a few days and manifest as localized pain at the site of inoculation, fatigue, headache and / or muscle pain, or a cold.
Consequently, the EMA “concluded that the benefits of Comirnaty in children aged 5 to 11 years outweigh the risks, particularly among those with comorbidities that may increase the risk of contracting a severe form of covid-19,” according to the statement. .
Currently, the EMA has licensed four vaccines for the general population: those from Pfizer and Moderna, using messenger RNA, and those from AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson, which use the “non-replicating viral vector” technique, based on adenovirus. .