Health & Fitness
COVID Vaccine For Kids? Coming Soon, Says Former Head Of FDA
The Pfizer vaccine could be approved for children ages 5 to 11 in time for Halloween.
U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS — Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, says that he believes the FDA will approve the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 by the end of October. He announced his prediction on CBS' "Face the Nation" on Sunday.
"In a best-case scenario, given that timeline they've just laid out, you could potentially have a vaccine available to children aged 5 to 11 by Halloween," Gottlieb said. Dr. Gottlieb currently sits on Pfizer's board of directors.
The FDA has indicated that a vaccine will likely be approved for children this winter, so approval in October would beat expectations.
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The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be tested on approximately 4,644 children at trial sites in the United States, Finland, Poland and Spain. Moderna is testing its vaccine on 12,000 children across 100 sites in the U.S.
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