Before winter, the bivalent Covid booster vaccine will be administered to children as young as five.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has suggested that children ages 5 to 11 receive a single dosage of Pfizer’s revised vaccine.
Children above the age of six can receive a bivalent booster from Moderna. Both new vaccines provide superior protection against the novel Omicron variants compared to older immunizations.
Officials are now ‘encouraging’ parents to vaccinate their children before the start of the fall semester.
However, numerous scientists have repeatedly opposed attempts to vaccinate the youngest members of society, arguing that their mortality risk is already negligible.
According to official estimates, more than eight in ten children under the age of 17 already have antibodies against Covid, either as a result of vaccination or previous illness.
It coincides with a delayed introduction of booster shots among adults.
Before today’s announcement, only 6% of Americans aged 12 and older who were eligible for the bivalent boosters had requested one.
Today, the FDA announced that younger age groups might receive the revised booster two months after their previous vaccination.
The injections were meant to target the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants, which are responsible for around 93% of US infections.
The initial vaccinations solely targeted the old ‘Wuhan’ virus, which caused the initial pandemic wave.
The FDA’s head of vaccination approvals, Dr. Peter Marks, stated that the suggestion was made owing to the return of schools.
Since children have returned to school and people are continuing pre-pandemic routines and activities, the risk of exposure to the virus that causes Covid has the potential to increase, he said.
‘While it has generally been the case that Covid tends to be less severe in children than in adults, as the various waves of Covid have occurred, more children have been hospitalized with the condition.
‘Children may also endure long-term impacts, even after a sickness that was initially benign.
We recommend parents consider a primary immunization for their children and a booster dose when appropriate.
Upon approving the extended booster program today, the director of the CDC, Rochelle Walensky, referred to it as a “crucial step” for the nation.
Numerous specialists have stated, however, that there is little reason to vaccinate children, as they stand an extremely low chance of severe disease and death from the pandemic virus.
Since the emergence of the Covid virus, 1,300 children between the ages of 1 and 17 have died, representing 0.1% of the over one million deaths in the United States.
There is also evidence that the majority are already immune to the virus.
According to research released last week, 86 percent of children under the age of 17 already possess Covid-fighting antibodies, showing they are already protected.
Some specialists caution about the increased risk of cardiac inflammation — myocarditis or pericarditis — among the vaccine-eligible age range, particularly young people.
According to the findings, as many as 1 in 7,000 adolescents experienced the reaction after receiving the Covid vaccine, but it is considerably less common in women and adults.
However, when the reaction does occur, it is typically moderate, and patients recover rapidly without experiencing any long-term negative effects.
Due to the hazards to children, several nations have refrained from offering booster doses at younger ages.
In Europe, Denmark and Norway have already prohibited Covid vaccinations for non-seniors, while Sweden will stop promoting them for children ages 12 to 18.
The current advice follows a slow introduction of the bivalent booster vaccine.
US health officials have purchased over 171 million updated vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna for millions of dollars.
A month into the distribution, however, only 11.5 million had been distributed, or less than five percent of the 216 million eligible recipients.
Last month, White House Covid chief Dr. Ashish Jha attributed the sluggish rollout to September’s mild weather, which discouraged vaccinations.
To ensure protection for Thanksgiving, he advised all eligible Americans to receive the new booster injections by Halloween.
“I believe that individuals should be vaccinated before Halloween,” he stated at the conference.
‘Why? Well, it will take a couple of weeks for your immune system to respond to the vaccine, so you will be prepared by Thanksgiving.
‘If you miss the holiday, it is not too late to have the vaccine, so there is no window of opportunity that has passed.’
Cases of covers in the United States have reached a level of approximately 40,000 per day.
However, experts are concerned that they may begin to rise before the end of this month as colder weather causes more people to congregate indoors.
European nations are already experiencing a Covid wave, which is an indicator of how the wave will move in the United States.
Last week, according to government estimates, the number of infected individuals in the United Kingdom increased by 14% to 1.1 million.
