By the way, evidence that even reasonable compliance with public health works: DisCon3 had about 2,000 "warm bodies" in physical attendance (in addition to a virtual component). There were a total of two known positive antigen tests among the members, of which one was *not* confirmed by PCR testing. The PCR test results for the other were not available as of yesterday (the last word we members have received). According to the information sent to members, this person was not actually in the convention programming space except for one visit to one location. (For many people, Worldcon is mostly about being in the same place as old friends, and the actual events of the convention are secondary or less important.)
Given the positive efficacy results in the 6mo-2yr range for Pfizer, why are they not going ahead with approval for that age range already, while waiting for a 3rd does trail for 2-5 year olds?
Man, that pediatric vaccine news was like a gut punch. The reality, though, is that even if it had been as successful as the 5-11 trial, it likely still wouldn't have been widely available in time for peak Omicron. It's also unclear to me that immunobridging data would've been sufficient to demonstrate probable efficacy in the context of this latest variant.
Notably, Moderna's trial for kids in this same age group is ongoing. I believe Moderna is administering a 25 microgram dose, which seems... kinda nuts, given the apparently increased risk of myocarditis with Moderna? Moderna's EUA for teens has been held up precisely because of the latter issue.
There's also Covaxin, whose EUA request for ages 2-18 we discussed previously. No sign yet that the FDA is moving on this request, but I wonder if the agency might reconsider given the lack of any other option for kids under 5. Still seems like an outside chance, but not impossible.
By the way, evidence that even reasonable compliance with public health works: DisCon3 had about 2,000 "warm bodies" in physical attendance (in addition to a virtual component). There were a total of two known positive antigen tests among the members, of which one was *not* confirmed by PCR testing. The PCR test results for the other were not available as of yesterday (the last word we members have received). According to the information sent to members, this person was not actually in the convention programming space except for one visit to one location. (For many people, Worldcon is mostly about being in the same place as old friends, and the actual events of the convention are secondary or less important.)
Given the positive efficacy results in the 6mo-2yr range for Pfizer, why are they not going ahead with approval for that age range already, while waiting for a 3rd does trail for 2-5 year olds?
Man, that pediatric vaccine news was like a gut punch. The reality, though, is that even if it had been as successful as the 5-11 trial, it likely still wouldn't have been widely available in time for peak Omicron. It's also unclear to me that immunobridging data would've been sufficient to demonstrate probable efficacy in the context of this latest variant.
Notably, Moderna's trial for kids in this same age group is ongoing. I believe Moderna is administering a 25 microgram dose, which seems... kinda nuts, given the apparently increased risk of myocarditis with Moderna? Moderna's EUA for teens has been held up precisely because of the latter issue.
There's also Covaxin, whose EUA request for ages 2-18 we discussed previously. No sign yet that the FDA is moving on this request, but I wonder if the agency might reconsider given the lack of any other option for kids under 5. Still seems like an outside chance, but not impossible.
In the meantime, found KN95s for 2+ if anyone's interested: https://wellbefore.com/collections/kids/products/kids-kn95-fda-5-layers-individually-wrapped?variant=32916338049153