Booster Shots for 12- to 15-Year-Old Age Group Have Been Cleared by F. D. A.
Credit...Rachel Woolf for The New York Times (Photo from The New York Times)
Booster Shots for 12- to 15-Year-Old Age Group Have Been Cleared by F. D. A.
On Monday, January 3, 2022, the Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A.) authorized booster doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds. The initial shots authorized for this group was in May 2021.
Per F.D.A., the amount of time that adult and adolescent recipients of Pfizer’s vaccine should wait between their second and third doses has been shortened. They only need to wait for five months before seeking booster shots after their second injections.
In a statement, F.D.A. said that they had allowed some children aged 5 to 11 with immune deficiencies to seek a third shot, including those who have undergone solid organ transplants or have conditions that amount to “an equivalent level of immunocompromise.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee is scheduled to meet on this Wednesday, January 5, 2022 to review the F.D.A. moves and decide whether to recommend the changes. If it does, the C.D.C.’s director, Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, is expected to quickly sign off on them.
” The risk of myocarditis was substantially lower after a booster dose than after a second dose,” said Dr. Peter Marks, who oversees the agency’s division that regulates vaccines. He also stated that the benefits of a third shot outweighed the potential risks, because it may better protect individuals against both the Delta and Omicron variants.
Dr. Marks said that since the F.D.A. has not received sufficient data on the benefits of a booster shot of Moderna’s vaccine at five months, and so is sticking to the six-month interval for that vaccine. He also stated, “We will obviously be receptive to data that are submitted to us from Moderna, and we’ll take action on those data with all due speed,”.
According to Dr. Marks, only about a quarter of 5- to 11-year-olds have been vaccinated, mostly in the last two months. Responding to booster shots for 5-to11-year olds inquiry, Dr. Marks said, “It would be great to get a larger percentage of those kids vaccinated, and then we’ll see how many months afterward we need to get them boosted,” he said.
While no vaccine is yet authorized for children under five. Dr. Marks acknowledged that F.D.A. understood that there was a pressing need in that age range. He assured that the F.D.A. would move with appropriate speed with the appropriate data in hand.
(Compiled from online information)
