Pfizer asks FDA to clear updated COVID shot for kids under 5
Pfizer is asking U.S. regulators to authorize its updated COVID-19 vaccine for children under age 5 — not as a booster but as part of their initial series of shots.
Children ages 6 months through 4 years already are supposed to get three extra-small doses of the original Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine — each a tenth of the amount adults receive — as their primary series. If the Food and Drug Administration agrees, a dose of Pfizer’s Omicron-targeting vaccine would be substituted for their third shot.
Pfizer and its partner BioNTech said Monday that change could help prevent severe illness and hospitalization from COVID in little kids, at a time when children’s hospitals are packed with youngsters hit by other respiratory illnesses.
Few of the nation’s youngest children have gotten their COVID-19 vaccinations since the shots were authorized in June: Just 2% of children under 2 and about 4% of 2- to 4-year-olds have gotten their primary doses so far, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
New boosters to protect against the latest Omicron variants of the coronavirus are arriving in Southern California this week. Here’s how to get one.
The FDA has authorized the new bivalent COVID-19 shots — made by both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna — as a booster for everyone ages 5 and older. Those combination shots contain half the original vaccine and half a version tweaked to match the spike protein of the BA.4 and BA.5 strains of Omicron, which were dominant until recently. Descendants of BA.6 are now responsible for most COVID-19 cases.
The CDC last month released the first real-world data showing that an updated booster, using either company’s version, does offer added protection to adults. The analysis found the greatest benefit was in people who’d never had a prior booster, just two doses of the original COVID-19 vaccine — but that even those who’d had a summertime dose were more protected than if they’d skipped the newest shot.
