Top 4 COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effects In Children 5 To 11

An eight-year-old child receives the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at the Beaumont Health offices in Southfield, Michigan on November 5, 2021

As the United States awaits the approval of COVID-19 vaccines for children under the age of 5, many parents are now concerned about the potential side effects of the shots in younger kids.

In early November, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11. Since then, 212,119,080 or 67.9% of all children aged 5 to 11 have been fully vaccinated against the novel coronavirus, according to data from the CDC.

V-safe, a smartphone app that allows personalized health check-ins after receiving a vaccine shot, enrolled 42,504 children aged 5 to 11 who received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine in its program. At least 7.9% developed a fever after the first dose and 13.4% after the second dose.

Other side effects reported included pain at the injection site, headache, fatigue, chills, muscle pain, joint pain, swollen lymph nodes and decreased appetite.

Additionally, 5.1% of parents whose children received a Pfizer shot said their children were unable to perform normal daily activities after receiving the first dose. The figures rose to 7.4% in children who received their second dose, data from v-safe showed.

Approximately 1% of parents said they had to seek medical care the week after the vaccination. Only 14 or 0.02% of children needed medical care at a hospital.

It is unclear whether children aged 4 and under would also experience the same side effects.

Pfizer-BioNTech on Tuesday asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve its two-dose COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 6 months to 4 years as the company continues its research on a three-dose regimen for the age group.

An FDA advisory panel is expected to review the data on Feb. 15 and discuss whether the benefits of vaccinating children belonging to the age group outweigh the risks of a COVID-19 infection, according to NPR.

Authorization from the FDA and CDC would depend on the vote of the advisory panel. Dr. Scott Gottlieb, former FDA commissioner and current Pfizer board member, has predicted that a COVID-19 vaccine for children under 5 could be rolled out in early March.

As of Jan. 27, health officials reported a total of 11,411,047 child COVID-19 cases in the U.S. since the beginning of the pandemic. The numbers represented 18.6% of all cases recorded in the country, a joint report from the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association said.