Pfizer said Thursday it plans to expand its COVID-19 boosters for elementary school children.
U.S. health officials are already urging anyone over the age of 12 to take a booster dose for the best protection against the latest options, and more recently, offering a second chance booster for people over the age of at 50.
Today Pfizer said new data shows that healthy children between the ages of 5 and 11 could benefit from another child-friendly shot.
In a small study, 140 teens who had already received two vaccines received a booster after six months, and the researchers found that the over-vaccine generally boosted their immune response. But a closer look at 30 children found a 36 -fold increase in antibodies to the virus, with levels high enough to fight the highly contagious variant of Omicron, Pfizer and its partner said. BioNTech in a news release.
The data is not published or verified by independent experts.
Pfizer tested the baby booster before omicron grew this winter. While COVID-19 cases are now at lower levels in the United States, in recent weeks, an even more contagious version of Omicron, called BA.2, has become the dominant type locally and globally. .
In the coming days, the companies plan to ask the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to allow the recall of healthy children between the ages of 5 and 11. They also plan to share data with European and other European authorities. regulation.
Vaccines are generally less effective against the omicron variant than previous versions of the coronavirus, but still offer strong protection against serious disease. Although COVID-19 poses a greater threat to adolescents, adolescents can become seriously ill. But regulators need to decide if healthy school -age children really need a booster and, if so, when.
The Pfizer vaccine is the only vaccine available for children in the United States. People between the ages of 5 and 11 receive one-third of the dose given to people over the age of 12. More than a quarter of the youth age group received two doses after the vaccination was opened in November, before Omiron’s stroke.
Vaccinations for children under 5 years of age are not yet allowed in the United States. But some teens aged 5 to 11 – those with severely weak immune systems – now need to take three doses to give this high -risk group a better chance. Answers.
Source: Huffpost
