More Children Now Eligible for Bivalent COVID-19 Booster
More children ages 6 months through 4 years are now eligible for a COVID-19 booster shot, which is targeted toward the Omicron BA.4/5 subvariants too, according to the U.S Food and Drug Administration’s latest announcement.
“Today’s authorization provides parents and caregivers of children 6 months through 4 years of age who received the three-dose primary series with the monovalent Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine an opportunity to update their children’s protection by receiving a booster dose with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent,” said Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.
“Currently available data show that vaccination remains the best defense against severe disease, hospitalization and death caused by COVID-19 across all age groups, and we encourage all eligible individuals to make sure that their vaccinations are up to date with a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine.”
The new emergency use authorization allows for the booster “after reviewing immune response data from 60 children in this age group who had three doses of the monovalent vaccine and a bivalent booster,” the FDA said in the press release.
—Priyam Vora
Reference:
News release. Coronavirus (COVID-19) update: FDA authorizes bivalent Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine as booster dose for certain children 6 months through 4 years of age. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Published online: March 14, 2023.
