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Pfizer says COVID-19 vaccine is 100 percent effective in children as young as 12 years old
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Pfizer says COVID-19 vaccine is 100 percent effective in children as young as 12 years old

Heartening news

Pfizer says that its COVID-19 vaccine is 100 percent effective in preventing coronavirus in children ages 12 to 15 years, according to NBC News.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has already been approved for use in teens ages 16 years and up.

What are the details?

The company, according to the report, now plans to request emergency use authorization for 12- to 15-year-old in coming weeks following a new study.

The findings, released on Wednesday, have not been peer-reviewed at the time of this reporting.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said that the company hopes to begin using the vaccine on this particular age group ahead of the 2021-2022 school year.

"We share the urgency to expand the authorization of our vaccine to use in younger populations and are encouraged by the clinical trial data from adolescents between the ages of 12 and 15," Bourla said in a statement on the news.

Uğur Şahin, CEO of BioNTech, added that the results were "encouraging given the trends we have seen in recent weeks regarding the spread of the B.1.1.7" variant of the coronavirus.

The outlet reported that the study, conducted on at least 2,200 young teens, found that just 18 cases of COVID-19 were reported among the teens who received a placebo shot, while the group that received the actual vaccine shot had no positive coronavirus cases at all.

"What's more," NBC reported, "teens in the trial who got the vaccine were later found to have levels of neutralizing antibodies — needed to wipe out the virus — similar to levels in older teens and young adults who had been vaccinated."

CNN reported that the biopharmaceutical companies added that the side effects in the younger teens were similar to that of those experienced by older teens and adults, which include pain at the injection site, fatigue, and fever.

Earlier this month, Pfizer-BioNTech embarked on a global study to test its vaccine in children ages 6 months to 11 years.

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