Gov. Gavin Newsom said California will effectively end its mask mandate next month when the state plans to fully reopen after more than a year of Covid-19 restrictions.

 

A US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expert said Wednesday that it's OK to give the coronavirus vaccine alongside other vaccinations, a major boon for children and teenagers behind on their regular inoculations.

 Doctors and other clinicians had previously been advised to avoid giving coronavirus vaccine within two weeks of any other vaccine.  But Dr.  Kate Woodworth of the CDC's birth defects division said Wednesday that advice has changed now, saying there is substantial data on the safety of the vaccines.

 "Extensive experience with non-Covid-19 vaccines has demonstrated that immunogenicity," or the ability of a vaccine to provoke an immune response, "and adverse event profiles are generally similar when vaccines are administered simultaneously as when they are administered alone," Woodworth  told a meeting of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).

 She said the clinical considerations are being updated to say that Covid-19 and other vaccines can be administered "without regard to timing," including on the same day.

 The change is important because many children remain behind on their regular vaccinations, as the pandemic shut down many non-emergency medical checkups.  The two-week delay threatened to add another hurdle to getting people protected against Covid-19 as well as other diseases like influenza, tetanus and HPV.

 The American Academy of Pediatrics also said Wednesday it supports giving routine childhood vaccines together with coronavirus vaccines.

 After some discussion among ACIP members concerned people might not fully understand the advice, the CDC added some language to its guidance to make it clear that the agency doesn't know if people will be more likely to have a reaction if they get a Covid-  19 vaccine close in time to other vaccines.

 The announcement came shortly before the vaccine advisers voted unanimously to recommend use of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine in youths age 12 to 15. They voted 14-0 to recommend use of the vaccine, with one recusal.

This is one more step to gaining immunity and bringing the pandemic closer to an end," said Dr.  José Romero, who chairs ACIP and who is also the Secretary of the Arkansas Department of Health.  "We still need to vaccinate the rest of the world, but we have made significant steps and are on the road."

 The recommendation comes a day after the US Food and Drug Administration decided to expand the emergency use authorization (EUA) of the Pfizer vaccine to people as young as 12. ACIP's advice now goes to CDC director Dr.  Rochelle Walensky, who is very likely to give the go-ahead within hours.

 Though young people are less likely to be seriously affected by Covid-19, they can still be infected and spread it to others.  The CDC estimates more than 22 million children age 5 to 17 have been infected with coronavirus, CDC's Dr.  Sara Oliver said Wednesday.

With so many older people vaccinated, children and teens are starting to make up a larger proportion of coronavirus cases now than earlier in the epidemic.In April, 9% of Covid-19 cases were aged 12-17 years, which actually represents a larger proportion of cases than adults 65 and older," Oliver told the ACIP meeting.