Pfizer asks FDA to authorize omicron Covid booster shots for kids ages 5 to 11

Jack Wasserman, 6, receives a Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease (COVID-19) booster vaccine in Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, U.S., May 19, 2022. 

Pfizer asked the FDA to allow its new Covid booster shots to be used for children ages 5 to 11.

Clinical trial results of the new vaccines have not yet been published. The company said its request is based on human data from a vaccine that targets the omicron BA.1 subvariant and data from animal studies.

Moderna asked the FDA to approve its omicron shots for children ages 6 through 17 on Friday. Moderna's new shots for adults were cleared by the CDC earlier this month.

The shots will likely be available for kids as young as 5 years old in October, according to the CDC. The vaccine advisory committee is scheduled to meet on October 19 and 20 to review the data on the boosters for children.

The omicron BA.5 shots are expected to provide better protection against infections this fall and winter. In the absence of human data, it's unclear how much more protection the new vaccines will give compared with the old ones.

The US uses the same process to switch the Covid vaccines to target a new strain of flu every year, according to Dr. Peter Marks, who heads the FDA's vaccine review division. Without human data, flu shots can be used.

The original strain of Covid was first discovered in China in 2019. The old shots, which were developed against the original strain of Covid, are no longer providing protection against infections and mild illness because the virus has changed over the course of the epidemic.

The vaccine's effectiveness against hospitalization is declining.