WHO Recommends Reducing Dose Of Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine For Children Under 12 Years

Illustration of a child's vaccination. (Wikimedia Commons/SELF Magazine)

JAKARTA - The World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday recommended extending the use of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, with reduced doses for children aged 5 to 11 years.

The recommendations come after the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on immunization, met on Wednesday to evaluate the vaccine. It is currently recommended for use in people 12 years of age and older.

The recommended dose for the younger population is 10 micrograms instead of the 30 micrograms offered to those 12 years and older.

"This age group (5-11) is in the lowest priority use group for vaccination, except, for children who have comorbidities," SAGE chairman Alejandro Cravioto told a briefing, citing Reuters on January 22.

Pfizer/BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for use by age groups in several countries including the United States, Canada, Israel and the European Union.

Meanwhile, WHO Vaccine Director Kate O'Brien, said no safety concerns had been raised for the application of the Pfizer vaccine at ages 5 to 11 in clinical trials.

At the same time, the panel also recommended that booster doses of Pfizer vaccine should be administered 4 months to 6 months after completion of the primary series, in high priority groups such as older adults and health care workers.

Separately, countries with moderate to high vaccination rates should prioritize the supply of available vaccine, in order to first achieve high booster dose coverage in high risk groups, before offering vaccine doses to low risk groups.

"Increasing booster dose coverage for high-risk priority groups will usually result in a greater reduction in severe illness and death than using equivalent vaccines to increase primary vaccination coverage," explains Cravioto.

Cravioto said the revision of the roadmap for the priority of COVID vaccines took into account increased vaccine availability, current coverage and circulation of variants of concern.

The panel said Pfizer's recommended use of booster doses was only for certain priority groups and did not support "unrestricted" use at all ages.

"We don't have any evidence yet of the need or evidence of performance boosters (in children under 12 years of age)," O'Brien said.