Right now, the cutoff is age 16 for the vaccine, while research continues. Pfizer is also doing a different study for kids 5-11 and Moderna has clinical trials underway for similar age groups. Any of them would require FDA approval for widespread vaccinations. An application from Pfizer is expected soon.
Oishei Children’s Hospital infections specialist Dr. Karl Yu said adolescents are hospitalized there with bad cases of COVID. Of the ones who do get admitted, they are as sick. Many of them need oxygen. Many of them need to be intubated. The ones who get this MIS-C illness, it gets really complicated, in which we have multiple sub-specialties treating the patient at the same time because we are putting out multiple fires in multiple different burners, if you will, for that one kid, Yu said.