pfizer-biontech, which offered the first covid-19 vaccine to any american over the age of 12, is seeking emergency-use authorization from the food and drug administration to administer its vaccine to younger children by the fall.
the drugmaker began enrolling volunteers in november aged 12 to 17. now, children as young as six months are being enrolled, with ochsner planning on vaccinating up to 75 children. the placebo-controlled study will include up to 4,500 participants from the u.s., spain, poland and finland, according to pfizer.
biro had been increasingly concerned about the so-called delta plus variant, a highly contagious strain of the virus first identified in india in april and now making its way around the world. by june 11, eleven countries had identified a total of 197 patients with the variant,
. britain has seen 36 cases, canada 1, india 8, japan 15, nepal 3, poland 9, portugal 22, russia 1, switzerland 18, turkey 1 and the united states 83. but today, india reported that it had 40 cases in three regions.
“the delta variant has really picked up steam in the u.s. and i think in louisiana especially,” biro
told abc news
. “given the fact that so much of our population is not vaccinated yet, it has a really significant chance of causing an uptick in covid cases in louisiana.