![]() ![]() Jha urged adults to get their updated shot in October – like they get flu vaccinations – or at least well before holiday gatherings with high-risk family and friends. “It’s clearly a better vaccine, an important upgrade from what we had before,” Jha said earlier this week. That’s partly because both companies already had studied experimental shots tweaked to target prior COVID-19 variants, including an earlier omicron version, and found they safely revved up virus-fighting antibodies. Pfizer and Moderna are starting studies in young children.īut the FDA cleared the COVID-19 booster tweaks without requiring human test results - just like it approves yearly changes to flu vaccines. FDA just expanded that adult bivalent dosage to 12- to 17-year-olds, and authorized half the dose for kids ages 6 to 11.Īs for even younger tots, first vaccinations didn’t open for the under-5 age group until mid-June - and it will be several more months before regulators decide if they’ll also need a booster using the updated recipe.Įxactly how much protection does an updated COVID-19 booster shot offer? That’s hard to know. Until now, Moderna’s updated booster was cleared only for adults. Pfizer said it could ship up to 6 million kid-sized doses within a week of authorization, in addition to ongoing shipments of adult-sized doses. While children tend to get less seriously ill than adults, “as the various waves of COVID-19 have occurred, more children have gotten sick with the disease and have been hospitalized,” Marks said.įor the updated booster made by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech, 5- to 11-year-olds would get a third of the dose that anyone 12 and older already receives. Peter Marks, FDA’s vaccine chief, said in a statement. “Vaccination remains the most effective measure to prevent the severe consequences of COVID-19,” Dr. This age group will get kid-size doses of the new omicron-targeting booster – and they can receive it at least two months after their last dose, whether that was their primary vaccination series or an earlier booster, the FDA said. Less than a third of 5- to 11-year-olds have had their two primary doses and thus would qualify for the new booster. ![]() To pediatricians’ chagrin, getting children their first vaccinations has been tougher. As of last weekend, only at least 13 million had gotten an updated booster, White House COVID-19 coordinator Dr. That means about three-fourths of Americans 12 and older are eligible. Only people who’ve gotten their initial vaccinations – with any of the original-formula versions – qualify for an updated booster. Parents should know “there is no concern from the safety perspective with the bivalent vaccines, whether Moderna or Pfizer,” Newland added. Jason Newland, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Washington University in St. The updated boosters are “extremely important” for keeping kids healthy and in school, said Dr. He hopes the updated shots will “reenergize interest in protecting children for the winter.” Bill Gruber, a pediatrician, told the Associated Press. “We want to have the best of both worlds,” Pfizer’s Dr.
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