Fmr FDA Chief: We Could Have Vaccine Available to Younger Kids by Halloween

Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb, who sits on the board of Pfizer, said Sunday there’s a good chance kids under 12 can get vaccinated soon.

With kids across the country back in schools, there have been questions about when the FDA will authorize vaccines for younger children. According to a recent report, Pfizer expects to be able to provide the necessary data for review this month.

In the interview, Margaret Brennan asked Gottlieb about this issue, and he talked specifically about Pfizer’s timetable.

“Pfizer has said that they’re going to have data before the end of September. They could be ready to file within days of having that data, so they’ll file very quickly with the FDA,” he said.

FDA has said it’s going to be a matter of weeks, not months, in terms of their evaluation of that clinical data to make a determination whether they’re going to authorize vaccines for kids age 5 to 11. I interpret that to mean perhaps four weeks, maybe six weeks. But I think in a best-case scenario, given that timeline they’ve just laid out, you could potentially have a vaccine available to children aged five to 11 by Halloween if everything goes well, the Pfizer data package is in order, and FDA ultimately makes a positive determination. I have confidence in Pfizer in terms of the data that they’ve collected. But this is really up to the Food and Drug Administration to make an objective determination.

He urged parents to talk with pediatricians about the best approach for their children.

You can watch above, via CBS.