The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was fully approved on Monday by the Food and Drug Administration for people 16 and older, but it will still be some time before it's authorized for use in young children.
The Pfizer vaccine is available for kids between the ages of 12 and 15 under an emergency use authorization. Before emergency use authorization can be expanded to kids under 12 — which is expected this fall or winter, NBC News reports — clinical trials must be completed. Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, told reporters on Monday the agency needs to have a "good safety dataset, because we certainly want to make sure we get it right in the children ages 5 through 11 and then even in younger children after that."
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