IL Health Officials Recommend COVID Vaccine For Kids 5-11

ILLINOIS — The Illinois Department of Public Health on Wednesday recommended the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children 5-11, following the lead of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Late last month, the Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine for children as young as 5, and on Tuesday an independent CDC advisory committee gave kids the green light to get their shots.

The dose for children between the ages of 5 and 11 is about a third of the adult dose, which has been approved for those 12 and older. That also means smaller, more kid-friendly needles. But, like adults, children will still need two shots about three weeks apart to be fully vaccinated.

“I encourage parents who may have questions about COVID-19 vaccines for their children to talk with a pediatrician or family doctor,” said public health director Dr. Ngozi Ezike.

Officials said vaccinations for those 5 and older will be available at local health departments, pharmacies and pediatricians offices. The state will also work with schools to set up vaccination clinics across the state.

State health officials said the Pfizer vaccine is more than 90 percent effective at preventing COVID-19 in children 5-11. Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech said their data shows the vaccine was "well tolerated and showed [a] robust neutralizing antibody response" in the younger age group.

Children do not usually get as sick, as often, as adults who catch the coronavirus, but hundreds of children have died from COVID-19, and thousands have been hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. State health officials have also warned of overcrowded pediatric emergency departments amid a surge of COVID-19 and other respiratory infections.

"While most children do not suffer severe COVID-19 illness, some do," Ezike said. "We also know children are great transmitters and can unknowingly infect people who could suffer severe illness. We need as many people as possible, including children, to be vaccinated to stop the spread of the virus and end this pandemic.”

Pfizer said the safety profile of its vaccine for children is comparable to the adult version. According to state and federal health officials, side effects are less frequent in children than adolescents or adults, but can include soreness at the injection site, fatigue, fever, chills and headache.

Side effects, when they occur, are generally mild to moderate and go away within a couple days, health officials said.