Children ages 5 to 11 should receive a booster dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, US government advisers said Thursday.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention quickly took up the panel’s recommendation and opened a third COVID-19 shot for healthy elementary school-aged children — just like what’s already recommended for anyone ages 12 and older.
The hope is that an additional injection will boost protection for children aged 5 to 11 as infections increase again.
“Primary range vaccination among this age group has lagged behind other age groups, making them vulnerable to serious disease,” said CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky in a statement.
“We know these vaccines are safe, and we need to continue to increase the number of children who are protected,” she said.
Earlier this week, the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer’s pediatric booster to be offered at least five months after the youths’ last injection.
The CDC is taking the next step by recommending who actually needs vaccinations. The advisers questioned whether all otherwise healthy 5- to 11-year-olds would need an extra dose, especially since so many children became infected during the huge winter wave of the omicron variant.
But the US now has an average of 100,000 new cases per day for the first time since February. And in the end, the CDC’s advisers pointed to growing evidence from older children and adults that two primary vaccinations plus a booster provide the best protection against the latest coronavirus variants.
“This may have always been a three-dose vaccine,” says Dr. Grace Lee of Stanford University, chair of the CDC advisory panel.
The booster question isn’t the hottest vaccine topic: Parents still anxiously await a chance to vaccinate children under 5 – the only group not yet eligible in the US
dr. Doran Fink of the Food and Drug Administration said the agency is working “as fast as we can” to evaluate an application from vaccine maker Moderna, and is awaiting final data on rival Pfizer’s smallest children. The FDA’s own advisers are expected to publicly debate the data from one or both companies next month.
For the 5 to 11 year olds, it is not clear how much booster demand there will be. Only about 30% of that age group have had the first two doses of Pfizer since vaccinations opened for them in November.
CDC advisor Dr. Helen Keipp Talbot of Vanderbilt University said health authorities should put more effort into giving young people their first injections.
“That should be a priority,” she said.
Thursday’s decision also means 5- to 11-year-olds with severely weakened immune systems, who are expected to receive three initial injections, are eligible for a fourth dose.
Pfizer and its partner BioNTech are currently making the only COVID-19 vaccine available to children of any age in the US. Those aged 5 to 11 are given a dose that is one-third the amount given to anyone aged 12 and older.
In a small study, Pfizer found a booster that increased those kids’ levels of virus-fighting antibodies — including those capable of fighting the super-infectious omicron variant — the same kind of jump that adults get from an extra shot.
Vaccines may not always prevent milder infections, and the omicron variety, in particular, has been shown to be able to slip past their defenses. But the CDC cited data during the ommicron wave that showed unvaccinated 5- to 11-year-olds were hospitalized twice as often as young people who received their first two doses.
Health authorities say the vaccines for all ages still offer strong protection against the worst results of COVID-19, especially after a third dose.
Some people at particularly high risk, including those 50 and older, have been given the choice of a second booster or fourth injection — and the CDC strengthened that recommendation on Thursday, urging everyone to go ahead and get the extra dose.
It has yet to be decided whether everyone will need additional injections in the fall, possibly reformulated to provide better protection against newer strains of the coronavirus.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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