Surgeon general tells parents vaccine for children will be reviewed with same rigor as adult one

 The U.S. surgeon general said regulators reviewing a COVID-19 vaccine for children below the age of five will use the "same independent rigorous and transparent" process as used for adult vaccines. Dr. Vivek Murthy made the comment at a White House press briefing on Wednesday. His comments came after a Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that just three in 10 parents of children in that age group are willing to get their child vaccinated right away once a vaccine is authorized. It also comes as the average number of daily deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. continues to climb above 2,600, according to a New York Times tracker, now higher than the peak surge in the fall when delta was dominant and close to the peak last winter, before vaccines were available. Deaths are up 35% from two weeks ago and show no signs of plateauing. Cases, now that the highly infectious omicron variant is dominant, are coming down from their January peak and averaging 385,425 a day, down 49% from two weeks ago, according to a New York Times tracker, Hospitalizations are down 16% from two weeks ago at 133,626 a day on average. If current death rates persists, the U.S. may see 900,000 fatalities from COVID by mid-February. On a global basis, the total tally for COVID-19 cases hiked up above 385.3 million on Tuesday, and the death toll rose above 5.7 million, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. leads the world with a total COVID-19 case count of 75.7 million and death toll of 894,316.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/coronavirus-tally-us-surgeon-general-tells-parents-vaccine-for-children-will-be-reviewed-with-same-rigor-as-adult-one-2022-02-03