FDA authorizes EUA for COVID vaccine for children ages 5 through 11
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Final authorization awaits Tuesday’s meeting of the CDC, but the Biden administration seems to have teed up the logistics of distribution in such a way that pretty much every family that wants to vaccinate its children will be able to do so by the end of the year.
It’s true that serious COVID illness is thankfully extremely rare among young children, but vaccinating them is a key step in moving from an epidemic to an endemic state.
Speaking of which, here are some new COVID stats:
Total COVID deaths in the US in September and October (so far): 75.3K
Total COVID deaths in the US during this time among Americans 65 and older: 44K
This means that currently about 58% of COVID deaths in the USA are among people 65 and older, compared to 81% in 2020. This is obviously due to the efficacy of the vaccines, and the high rate of vaccination among the elderly.
It’s still sobering to contemplate that the majority of COVID deaths are still among old people, even though 97% of the 65+ population has gotten at least one vaccine dose, while 85% is fully vaccinated. The virulence of the Delta variant is such that the death toll without the vaccines would be . . . well I don’t know how to calculate this, but clearly the number is way, way larger than the nearly 750K official COVID deaths to this point, not to mention the nearly 200K other excess deaths in the US since February of last year that aren’t attributed (at least not directly) to COVID.