The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has released two studies showing vaccine safety for children aged 5-11 years and has stressed that children should be vaccinated against COVID-19 to prevent serious illness and hospitalization.

One study noted that serious problems were rare among children who were administered the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. The second study evaluated hundreds of pediatric hospitalizations from the summer and noted that almost all the children who developed severe COVID-19 were not fully vaccinated. The study suggested that unvaccinated children hospitalized for COVID-19 could develop severe disease.

Around 9 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been administered to children aged 5-11 years in the U.S. thus far, as per The New York Times. By mid-December, the CDC received very few reports of serious problems, stated the agency.

The agency evaluated reports received from doctors and the general public, including survey responses from parents and guardians of nearly 43,000 children aged between 5 and 11 years. Many children had non-serious events, including pain at the injection site, fatigue, or headache, especially after receiving the second vaccine dose. Of over 4,100 adverse event reports received in November and December, 100 were for serious events, fever or vomiting being the most common. The agency had received 11 confirmed reports of myocarditis, which has been reported to be a rare side effect of the vaccine among boys and men aged 12-29 years. There were reports of two deaths — girls aged 5 and 6 years — who had underlying chronic medical conditions… (Medscape)