June 2022 — MHCE
News from MHCE JUNE 2022 EDITION American Airlines has Parked 100 Jets Due to Pilot Shortage See page 22 Monthly Newsletter WWW.MHCE.US Pfizer COVID Shot 80% Effective in Young Kids, Early Data Shows Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, said Monday that an early analysis showed their three-dose coronavirus vaccine regimen triggered a strong immune response in young children, proving 80% effective at preventing symptomatic infections in children 6 months to 4 years old. The results, along with other recent developments, signal that the long and frustrating wait for a vaccine for the youngest children, the last group to lack access, could be over within weeks. A few hours after Pfizer and BioNTech issued a news release announcing the data, which has not been peer reviewed, the Food and Drug Administration said its outside experts will meet June 14 and 15 to discuss the Moderna and Pfizer- BioNTech pediatric vaccines. Pfizer and BioNTech said they plan to finish filing data with the FDA this week — and warned that the efficacy number was fluid because results are still arriving. If the FDA advisory panel looks favorably on the vaccines, the agency could authorize them as soon as June 16 or 17. Vaccine advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention then would consider who should get the vaccines, with a final recommendation coming from agency director Rochelle Walensky shortly afterward. The vaccines would probably be available immediately. "This is incredibly exciting data!" Kawsar Talaat, a pediatrician and vaccine expert at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, wrote in an email. "I also think that it reinforces what we've seen in adults as well. For the Omicron variant, a third dose is necessary for optimal protection." Federal officials are already reviewing the pediatric vaccine from biotechnology company Moderna, a twoshot regimen that was 51% effective in preventing Continued on page 13
