FDA Removes COVID Booster Shot For Healthy Children Ages 5 To 11 –

U.S. regulators on Tuesday approved the introduction of the COVID-19 booster to healthy children between the ages of 5 and 11, in the hope that the extra dose of the vaccine will increase their protection as the number of infection.

Everyone over the age of 12 should take a booster dose for the best protection against the latest corovirus variants, and some people, including those aged 50 and over, may choose a second booster.

The Food and Drug Administration clearance is now opening a third tool also for elementary school children, at least five months after the last dose.

There is another hurdle: the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must decide whether to formally recommend this age group. A meeting of CDC scientific advisers is scheduled for Thursday.

The Pfizer vaccine is the only COVID-19 vaccine available for children of any age in the United States. People between the ages of 5 and 11 receive one-third of the dose given to people 12 years of age or older.

If elementary school children need a booster, whether or not parents ’cries for immunization are covered up, children under 5 years of age – the only group not yet allowed in the United States, was Pfizer and rival Moderna taught them to vaccinate. younger children. The FDA is expected to review data from one or both companies next month.

So far it is not yet known what he will do after leaving the post. Only 30% of this age group have received the first two doses of Pfizer since vaccination began in November.

But in a small study, Pfizer found that the booster increased levels of antibodies resistant to children with the virus, including those resistant to Omiron, the same step that adults take with extra and shot.

Although the coronavirus is more dangerous for adults than children, young people can become seriously ill and, according to the CDC, more than 350 children between the ages of 5 and 11 have died.

Adding to the public confusion, the CDC estimates, 3 children of all ages from the United States have been infected with the coronavirus since the pandemic began, many of them during the winter omicron wave. However, health authorities are also calling for vaccination for people who have previously had COVID-19 to increase their protection.

Vaccination does not always prevent milder infections, especially since Omicron and its siblings are better than earlier variants of this defense. But health authorities agree that vaccinations continue to provide strong protection against the worst outcomes of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death.