Korea Authorizes Pfizer Vaccine for Children

The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on Wednesday authorized the use of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine for children as young as five.

The vaccine, called Cominarty, contains the same substances as the drug for adults but in smaller doses. Two injections are administered three weeks apart, while children with low immunity levels are given a third shot four weeks after the second one.

Comirnaty has been authorized for children by 62 governments including the U.S. and EU. Pfizer conducted a clinical study on 3,109 children and 1,064 people aged 16 to 25 in Finland, Poland, Spain and the U.S. and found no major differences in safety.

The most common side effects were pain in the area of injection, fatigue, headaches and chills, while children showed a higher tendency of swelling than young adults, but the side effects disappeared within three days and the preventive effect reached 90.7 percent a week after the second shot.

The vaccine may help stem the surging spread of the virus and keep vulnerable children with underlying health problems from getting seriously ill, although some concerns about vaccinating children remain.

Choi Eun-hwa, a medical professor at Seoul National University, said, "Children suffering from obesity, chronic lung ailments, heart disease and diabetes who can develop into serious cases if infected with COVID-19 should have the vaccination first."