Pfizer

A tornado that tore through eastern North Carolina and struck a large Pfizer pharmaceutical plant has damaged its drug storage facility but not its medicine production areas.

The company says its factory near Rocky Mount, North Carolina, makes nearly 25% of Pfizer's sterile injectable medicines used in U.S. hospitals.

The decision aims to better protect the littlest kids amid an uptick in COVID-19 cases around the country. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to sign off soon.

The drugmaker has the best-selling vaccine to prevent COVID and the most effective drug to treat it. Its success and might have overshadowed the government’s COVID-fighting strategy.

About 18 million children under 5 nationwide are eligible for the shots.

Federal health officials could authorize COVID-19 vaccines for children younger than 5 later this week. If they do, health experts say families should act quickly.

Pediatric hospitalizations remain high in Florida. Doctors say extending vaccine eligibility to little ones could help protect them in the future.

Parents say they want to protect their kids from the virus and prevent them from spreading it to someone else.

As of Wednesday afternoon, no health department in Citrus, Hardee, Hernando, Highlands, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, or Sarasota counties had received the vaccine.

Pfizer studied a lower dose of its vaccine in more than 2,200 kindergartners and elementary school-aged kids. They developed coronavirus-fighting antibody levels as strong as teens and young adults.

Now that the Food and Drug Administration has fully approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19, South Florida health care experts hope to see more vaccine mandates and more people getting their shots.

The approval replaces the emergency use authorizations granted last December and could make it easier for employers, the military and universities to mandate vaccination.