Israel to Immunize Children with Comirnaty Vaccine

The Israeli Ministry of Health's Director-General, Prof. Nachman Ash, confirmed today he accepted the recommendation by the Pandemic Response Team and the COVID-19 Vaccination Advisory Board to begin vaccinating children aged 5-11 against COVID-19 with the Comirnaty vaccine.

In his reasoning, the Director-General explained in a press statement updated on November 15, 2021, 'that the vast majority of the members of the committee are in the opinion that the vaccine is of a good safety profile.'

'And, most experts are in the opinion that the benefits of vaccination of this age group outweigh the risks.'

The Israeli data dashboard reflects an increase in SARS-CoV-2 virus infections over the past month in this age group, but few COVID-19 fatalities.

Efficacy data presented by Pfizer Inc. indicate the Comirnaty vaccine efficacy is about 91% in preventing severe illness in children aged 5-11 years.

After the U.S. FDA's vaccine committee has recommended the vaccination of children aged 5 to 11 last month, the Pandemic Response Team resolved on November 4, 2021, to hold a public discussion and to present information on this matter and the ensemble of considerations ahead of the resolution on its recommendation to the Ministry of Health's Director-General.

Known globally as Comirnaty, the Pfizer vaccine is a nucleoside-modified RNA formulated in lipid nanoparticles and encodes an optimized SARS-CoV-2 full-length spike protein antigen. 

Comirnaty contains a molecule with instructions for producing a protein from the SARS-CoV-2 virus. However, Comirnaty does not include the beta coronavirus itself and cannot cause COVID-19, says the European Medicines Agency.