Children ages 5 to 11 should get a booster dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, a US government advisory panel recommended on Thursday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) quickly accepted the recommendation, opening the possibility of applying a third injection of the COVID-19 vaccine to healthy children of primary school, like the one already recommended for those over 12 years of age.
An additional injection is expected to bolster protection for children aged 5 to 11, at a time when infections are on the rise again.
Earlier this week, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Pfizer’s infant booster vaccine, which will be offered at least five months after the last injection in children.
The CDC takes the next step by recommending who really needs vaccinations.
The advisers debated whether all children aged 5 to 11, who are generally healthy, need an extra dose, especially since many of them were infected during the winter wave of the omicron variant.
However, the United States is registering an average of 100,000 new cases a day for the first time since February. And CDC advisers pointed to growing evidence in older children and adults that two primary vaccines plus a booster provide greater protection against new coronavirus variants.
“Perhaps it was always meant to be a three-dose vaccine,” said Dr. Grace Lee of Stanford University, who chairs the CDC’s advisory panel.
The issue of booster shots isn’t the most pressing issue: Parents are still eagerly awaiting the opportunity to vaccinate children under 5, the only group not yet eligible in the United States.
The FDA’s Dr. Doran Fink said the agency is working “as fast as we can” to evaluate an application from drugmaker Moderna, while awaiting final results from rival Pfizer on the vaccine for younger children.
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