Pfizer says its Covid-19 vaccine is safe and 100 percent effective in preventing the illness in teenagers ages 12 to 15.
"This is exactly the news that we hoped to hear," said Dr. Buddy Creech, a pediatric infectious disease expert at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. Creech was not involved in the Pfizer research.
A total of 2,250 children in the United States were tested in the third phase of the Pfizer vaccine. The company says that after vaccination, it is 100 percent effective. One month after the second dose of 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.
Pfizer plans to send the full data to the US Food and Drug Administration soon for immediate approval of the vaccine.