Children in the spotlight in the coronavirus battle

Children are now in the spotlight in the coronavirus fight. Pfizer wants to extend its COVID-19 vaccine to those as young as 12 years old and has asked the FDA for permission to do so.

The request comes because children are believed to be central to the latest increase in cases of COVID-19, reports Michael George for ‘CBS This Morning: Saturday’.

“There are concerns about the transfer in youth sports, as well as club sports and sports involved in schools,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said.

In Michigan, which is leading the number of cases per day this week, Governor Gretchen Whitmer asked for a two-week break over children’s sports, along with indoor eateries.

“Life depends on it,” she said Friday. “Michigan is undoubtedly a national hotspot at the moment.”

But in New York, Coney Island has been solemnly reopened.

“You can not feel New York, you can not understand New York unless you come to Coney Island,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said Friday.

As schools plan to reopen, the CDC stressed that its safety guidelines should be followed.

“We have not yet seen evidence that COVID-19 was significantly transmitted in schools when schools fully implemented CDC’s mitigation guidelines,” Walensky of the CDC said.

More than 68 million people, or about 20% of adults in the U.S., are now fully vaccinated, and more than one in three Americans – just over 114 million people – have received at least one COVID shot.

There are reports of small percentages of side effects. Each of the three major vaccine manufacturers had a remarkably low .1% of recipients had side effects.