The subject is as much a matter of public health as of ethics.
The Pfizer / BioNTech alliance submitted an authorization request to Health Canada on Monday for the use of its Covid-19 vaccine in children aged 5 to 11, pharmaceutical companies and the Canadian government said.
"This is the first request that Health Canada receives for the use of a vaccine against Covid-19 in this age group," said the Ministry of Health.
The authorization request is based on data from trials conducted on 2,268 children in this age group for whom the dosage was lowered to 10 micrograms per injection (three times less than the standard dose), which represents, according to the company, "the preferable dose" for 5 to 11 year olds.
This same Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine is approved in Canada for ages 12 and up.
Other laboratories are doing tests
Health Canada assures that it will only authorize the use of the vaccine "if the independent and thorough scientific review of all the data submitted confirms that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks" with this group.
The Canadian ministry also indicated that "other manufacturers are also testing their vaccines on children of different age groups."
Childhood immunizations are raising questions around the world.
Many countries vaccinate adolescents from the age of 12, but very few do so below that age.
In recent months, the World Health Organization has insisted that the urgency is to vaccinate the population of poor countries before children and adolescents in rich countries.
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