Kids’ COVID vaccines create a new dilemma for FDA, CDC – Axios

Federal health regulators will soon face their next controversial vaccine decision: whether to authorize Pfizer’s vaccine for children younger than 5, despite ongoing questions around dosing and effectiveness.

Why it matters: Once again, the pandemic is forcing health officials to choose between unconventional vaccine approval methods and the human costs of abiding by more traditional yet time-consuming regulatory processes.

State of play: At the request of the agency, Pfizer has asked the FDA for two doses of its coronavirus vaccine to be authorized for emergency use in children between 6 months and 5 years old, even though the plan is for the vaccine to eventually be given as a three-dose series.

via www.axios.com

I’ve consulted LWJ, who IMHO is a bit covid paranoid, about this and she says it’s insane, and she knows a great deal about medicine. There’s no reason to vaccinate children so young, none whatsoever as far as I can tell. I’m at a loss to understand what the hell is going on here. For the rare kids who are vulnerable, those with cancer for instance, sure — but we’re talking about *all* kids. California is apparently even considering making kid vaccines *mandatory*! Could somebody please explain what the steel-man version of the argument for vaccines for children under 5, or under 12, or 18 for that matter? Is it to protect older people? To me this goes way beyond the usual ideological disagreement and into the realm of the pathological. It seems to me more like Big Pharma just taking advantage of young parents’ understandable but irrational fears for their young children.