The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved the updated COVID boosters for children between 5 and 11 years of age.
The sign-off was confirmed this week, in an attempt for the F.D.A. to broaden the age group in regard to the updated COVID-19 age authorization.
Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, says this week that this is a necessary move since kids are starting to go back to school this fall, which puts children at risk of becoming ill through physical contact.
“Since children have gone back to school in person and people are resuming pre-pandemic behaviors and activities, there is the potential for increased risk of exposure to the virus that causes COVID-19. Vaccination remains the most effective measure to prevent the severe consequences of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death,” Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.
Dr. Marks recommends parents across the country to take advantage of this new COVID booster update to follow up with doses for their children who are now eligible for these vaccinations.
“While it has largely been the case that COVID-19 tends to be less severe in children than adults, as the various waves of COVID-19 have occurred, more children have gotten sick with the disease and have been hospitalized. Children may also experience long-term effects, even following initially mild disease,” Marks said. “We encourage parents to consider primary vaccination for children and follow-up with an updated booster dose when eligible.”
Dr. Ugur Sahin, co-founder of BioNTech, says this move by the F.D.A. is an important milestone to expand the population eligible to receive these doses.
“This milestone is important to be able to provide access to variant-adapted vaccines to a broader population,” Dr. Ugur Sahin, co-founder of BioNTech. “In addition, we have started a clinical trial to evaluate the adapted vaccine based on the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants in children six months through 11 years of age aiming to offer all age groups the opportunity to immunize against Omicron variants and subvariants.”
