| The Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization for Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for children between the ages of 5 and 11. When kids begin receiving their shots, what kind of side effects can be expected?
That approval was based on data gathered during clinical trials. During one of those trials, studies determined that one-third of the adult dose produced an adequate immune response "best tolerated for children of that age, with the fewest side effects like fever, aches and chills and things like that," said Dr. Emanuel “Chip” Walter Jr., chief medical officer of the Duke Human Vaccine Institute and professor of pediatrics, who conducted the trial at the Duke School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina.
The same dosage was administered in a larger trial of 4,500 children, of whom 3,000 were given the vaccine and 1,500 received a placebo.
“A study of 3,000 children getting the vaccine is actually a pretty good group if you’re looking for fairly common side effects,” Walter said.
“Parents were given a diary to report symptoms on a daily basis for seven days after children received each dose of vaccine,” Walter said. “Usually, the symptoms were pretty mild in most cases … and they resolved within a day or two.”
Walter encouraged parents to prepare their children for an achy day after the shot.
“They may get a fever, they may feel a little achy, not feel as good the next day following vaccination, and that’s to be expected,” Walter said. “Those things can be managed pretty easily with ibuprofen.”
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