FDA authorizes omicron boosters for children as young as 5 years old
Children ages 5 to 11 will soon be eligible to receive an updated COVID-19 booster targeting the omicron variant after the Food and Drug Administration authorized expanding eligibility to younger school-age children on Wednesday.
The agency authorized Pfizer’s updated booster for children ages 5-11 and Moderna’s shot for children ages 6-17 for at least two months following the completion of their primary 2-dose vaccination series or last booster.
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“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,” said Dr. Peter Marks, the director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. “We encourage parents to consider primary vaccination for children and follow-up with an updated booster dose when eligible.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention needs to sign off on the authorization before providers can administer the updated booster to younger age groups, though the agency signaled last month it intends to recommend the shots.
In August, the FDA authorized the new boosters from Moderna for people 18 and older and Pfizer-BioNTech’s booster candidate for people 12 years and older. As of Oct. 6, 11.5 million people have received an updated booster, representing only a fraction of the population that is eligible for the shots, according to the CDC.
Booster vaccinations for younger age groups could have a slow uptick as well, as only 31% of children ages 5-11 have received their primary vaccination series, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
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The Biden administration has encouraged the updated boosters, which target both the original strain of the virus from 2020 and omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, anticipating a rise in cases as people spend more time indoors in the fall and winter and going into the holiday season.
