Use of Pfizer’s booster jab has been expanded to children aged between 12 and 15
US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), has extended Pfizer/BioNTech booster use to teens and cut down the time between the primary vaccine and the booster dose for them from six months to five.
According to the guidance, updated on Monday, “protective health benefits” against coronavirus and its consequences “Outweigh any potential hazards.” Prior to coming to this conclusion, the FDA analyzed “Data from the real world” from Israel where boosters for this age category were approved at the end of November.
According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, Covid numbers among US children are “Extremely high, and growing” with just over half of 12-17 olds being fully vaccinated.
Besides the new recommendations for 12-17 years olds, the FDA has also approved a third ‘primary series’ dose for 5-11-year-old children who have undergone a solid organ transplantation or were considered “To have an equal level of immunocompromise.”
These decisions were made amid an influx of Covid infection caused by Omicron coronavirus.
“…It appears that the omicron version is slightly less resistant to antibody levels in the response to current primary series vaccines.,” the head of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research Peter Marks said.
The US set a new world record in December for the number of Covid cases registered, surpassing 647,000 within a single day.
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