Three things for October 27
1. FDA advisory panel recommends Pfizer vaccine for kids
The Pfizer vaccine is 90.7% effective in preventing COVID-19 infections for children between five and 11, according to the Food and Drug Administration panel.
The pediatric dose to be used is not only smaller than the one given to adults, but the formulation is slightly different.
“‘The vaccine provides a broad defense against COVID-19 and “effectively neutralized the delta variant” in young kids,’ said Dr. William Gruber, senior vice president of vaccine clinical research and development at Pfizer, speaking during the committee hearing,” reported NPR.
Unvaccinated children with COVID can develop a serious complication called multisystem inflammatory syndrome or MIS-C, as well as an inflammation of the heart muscle called myocarditis.
The committee’s recommendation comes as more than 1.9 million cases have been reported among children ages 5-11, with approximately 8,300 children hospitalized to date, according to the CDC.
2. Gov. Lee visits Chattanooga for the groundbreaking of Construction Vocational Center
On Tuesday, Gov. Bill Lee and Hamilton County leaders broke ground on a new construction career center in Chattanooga.
“The 28,000 square foot vocational center will serve as a centerpiece for construction education and training for Hamilton County high school students and adults, and a career and industry center for construction professionals,” reports Channel 3 News.
Gov. Bill Lee said the building is a necessity for bringing in more companies.
“We need to get skills into the hands of those that need that meaningful employment, so it’s incredibly important that we invest in vocational, and technical, and agricultural education,” Lee said.
According to Channel 3, the project is expected to be completed in June of 2022.
3. Sudan’s prime minister returns home after being detained during coup
On Tuesday, Sudan Prime Minister, Abdallah Hamdok and his wife were allowed to return home, a day after they were detained when the military seized power in a coup.
A statement released by Hamdok’s office said other government officials remained in detention, their locations unknown.
The release of Hamdok and his wife followed international condemnation of the coup and calls for the military to release all the government officials who were detained when Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan seized power on Monday.
The coup came less than a month before Burhan was supposed to hand the leadership of the Sovereign Council that runs the country to a civilian — a step that would have decreased the military’s hold on power, according to AP News.
At an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged world powers to unite to confront a recent “epidemic of coups d’état.” The council, however, took no action during the closed-door consultations about Sudan, according to AP News.
For more information about the situation in Sudan, read the full AP News article.
