The UK’s health regulator has approved the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in children aged 12-15, meaning Cayman is likely to begin offering the shots to this age group soon.
In an announcement this morning, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency stated that, after a “rigorous review”, the vaccine had been found to be safe and effective in 12-15 year olds, and that the benefits outweigh any risks involved.
The vaccine had already been approved for this age group in the US, Canada and the European Union, but Cayman had been waiting for approval from the UK before moving ahead with vaccinating this younger segment of the community. The British government has been supplying Cayman with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for free since early this year.
The Compass has reached out to the Ministry of Health for details on when the vaccines are likely to be rolled out for children in Cayman.
Speaking on Crosstalk on Tuesday, Premier Wayne Panton said his government was in the process of trying to make the vaccines readily available to youth between the ages of 12 and 15 years old, now that the Pfizer vaccine had been approved elsewhere.
“We have been waiting on Public Health England to give us an indication on [if] we can go ahead and utilise it,” said Panton. “Last week I was told that wasn’t likely, this week there is an indication that it may be imminent. Whether that happens or not, we can make a decision as to whether to go ahead with it.”
The current batch of vaccines in Cayman is on the verge of running out, following a push by government to use up the remaining supply before it expires at the end of June. The next batch is scheduled to arrive on island on 16 June.
Although approval has been given by the regulator in Britain, it is now up to the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation to make the final decision on whether children should be given the vaccine.
Dr. June Raine, the regulatory agency’s chief executive, said in a statement that it would monitor the use of the vaccines, and any reported side effects, among the 12-15-year age group.
“No extension to an authorisation would be approved unless the expected standards of safety, quality and effectiveness have been met,” she said.
In the same statement, Professor Sir Munir Pirmohamed, chair of the Commission on Human Medicines, said, “We have been very careful to take into consideration the younger age group and the benefits of this population being vaccinated against any potential risk of side effects. There has been a thorough assessment and review of this data which was also looked at specifically by the CHM’s Paediatric Medicines Expert Advisory Group who are scientific experts within this age group, as well as the CHM’s COVID-19 Vaccines Benefit Risk Expert Working Group.”
He added that the various agencies had concluded that, “based on the data we have seen on the quality, effectiveness and safety of the vaccine, its benefits do outweigh any risk”.
He said that more than 2,000 children aged 12-15 years had been studied as part of randomised, placebo-controlled clinical trials.
“There were no cases of COVID-19 from 7 days after the second dose in the vaccinated group, compared with 16 cases in the placebo group. In addition, data on neutralising antibodies showed the vaccine working at the same level as seen in adults aged 16-25 years. These are extremely positive results,” he said.
Related Videos
Utter madness.