Pfizer is working to expand the vaccine to tweens.

On Friday, the drug company put in a request to the Food and Drug Administration to adjust its emergency use authorization to children ages 12 to 15. When the FDA originally greenlit the authorization it was for individuals ages 16 and up, per NBC News.

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CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement: “The hope of starting to vaccinate this age group before the start of the next school year.”

Pfizer-BioNTech discovered last week in Phase 3 clinical trials the vaccine was 100% effective in 12- to-15-year-olds.

A pediatric infectious disease expert at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, Dr. Buddy Creech said this is the next step in the fight against the virus.

“Vaccinating our teenagers is the next step in seeing our way through the pandemic.”

He added: “By extending the age groups that can receive vaccine, we can continue our efforts to protect those that are most vulnerable: older adults as well as adults and teenagers with underlying medical conditions.”

The company is now researching the effects of the virus in children six months to 11 years old. A new trial started in March.

As of now, Pfizer is the only vaccine for teens ages 16 and over.

Film mogul Tyler Perry is well ahead of the game in making sure his team is vaccinated, as per theGrio,

After getting his own COVID-19 vaccine shot on TV in January, Perry made sure his production crew got vaccinated last weekend.

Last Saturday, the Hollywood mogul set up a vaccination site at his Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. Perry teamed with Grady Hospital staff for the event and, per THR, he covered the logistical costs of setting up the site where 250 Pfizer vaccine shots were administered. 

The vaccine was not mandatory and was made available to anyone working at the studio (including their family members and friends) who wanted a shot. The Pfizer vaccine requires two doses, and hospital staff will return later this month to administer the second one, according to the report.

“There’s still a lot of vaccine hesitancy out there,” said Perry, noting that more than 50% of his crew agreed to get vaccinated. “It’s my hope that people will just get out and get the vaccine, and know that I have it and other members of my staff have it and we’ve [had] no issues, no problems.”

In January, Perry received the COVID vaccine on-camera during the BET project COVID-19 Vaccine and the Black Community: A Tyler Perry Special. In an interview with theGrio, he called out the Black church for its response to the pandemic and vaccine rollout.

“I have been so extremely disappointed with the church. It is almost heartbreaking … it is heartbreaking on so many levels,” said Perry, “looking at the church and what it means to be a church to be there for the people. It means having the doors open. It means feeding the people. It means getting COVID testing. It means getting the vaccine done at the church.  

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“Being the church means all of those things. And if a church is not stepping up to meeting those needs, then what good are you?” Perry added. “To stand in the pulpit and just preach about God and Jesus and he is going to make a way when you have the opportunity and you have the ability to help somebody and you don’t. What good are you?”

Additional reporting by Ny Magee

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The post Pfizer requests FDA approval of vaccine for children ages 12 to 15 appeared first on TheGrio.