COVID-19: US children could receive vaccine by year end, says Fauci

US government’s leading epidemiologist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, on Sunday, February 28, during NBC's "Meet the Press" predicted that the elementary school children will receive the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of this year or by early next year. He revealed that there are various studies going on to analyse vaccine safety for younger children. He said, “If you project realistically, when we will be able to get enough data to be able to say that elementary school children will be able to be vaccinated, I would think that would be, at the earliest, the end of the year, and very likely the first quarter of 2022”.

J&J vaccine approved 

This comes just a day after the US Food and Drug Administration authorised Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine for people ages 18 and older. The vaccine, made by Janssen, is safe and effective and it is considered flexible. It is a single dose vaccine and it doesn’t require special storage. The vaccine has been approved for adults 18 and older. Previously approved Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine can also be administered to those who are 16 and older.

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As a part of the analysis, the J&J shot was tested on 44,000 adults in the US, Latin America and South Africa. The analysis further cautioned that it is still not clear how well the vaccine works against the different variants of the deadly coronavirus. However, it was concluded that the vaccine worked better in the US as it is 77 per cent effective against moderate to severe COVID-19 infections. In Latin America, it is 66 per cent and 57 per cent in South Africa.

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According to the CDC data, more than 72 million doses of vaccine have been administered in the US. This means that about one-in-five adults have received at least one dose. Also, about one-in-10 adults have received two doses.

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