A high-level medical panel of US government advisors will meet today to decide whether to authorise the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine for children aged five to 11 years old, AFP reports.

This would make 28 million younger children eligible for the shots in November.

The question before the panel: based on the scientific evidence available, do the benefits of the two-dose vaccine, given three weeks apart, outweigh the known risks?

Ahead of the meeting, the Food and Drug Administration uploaded an analysis by Pfizer that showed the vaccine — given at 10 micrograms instead of 30mcg as in older groups — was 90.7 per cent effective at preventing symptomatic Covid-19, and there were no serious safety issues.