Yesterday Pfizer requested emergency approval from US health authorities to use its Covid jab in children aged five to 11. Here is a look at different approaches to vaccinating children against the virus and the debates it has launched around the world. What changes are made for children? Pfizer tested its jab on more than 2,000 US children aged five to 11 and submitted results to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval.
The dosage for children in that age range is a third of what it is for adults: 0.1 mL rather than 0.3 mL. Pfizer and BioNTech say children in trials reacted well to the vaccine and that their immune response was "robust" and "comparable" to that observed in older adolescents and young adults aged 16 to 25.