The United States health authorities gave final approval to Moderna and Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccines for children under 5 years of age and babies up to 6 months, in a key step for the smallest of households.
Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), signed the authorization for the emergency use of both vaccines this Saturday, after the recommendation of a panel of experts.
The CDC panel’s approval comes a day after the FDA authorized the emergency use of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines for minors.
Children under 5 are the last age group left in the US to be vaccinated, and many parents have been eagerly awaiting approval from health authorities to protect their young children.
If all regulatory hurdles are cleared, the vaccines should be available next week. As many as 20 million US children under the age of 5 would be eligible for vaccination.
The Joe Biden administration is already coordinating the initial shipment of 10 million doses to different states. Millions of additional doses are expected to become available in the coming weeks.
The government allowed pharmacies and states to start ordering last week, with 5 million doses initially available, half of them made by Pfizer and the other half of the vaccine produced by Moderna, senior government officials said.
It’s not clear how popular the vaccines will be. A recent survey suggests that only 1 in 5 parents of young children would get their children vaccinated right away.
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