FDA authorizes Covid omicron booster shots for kids as young as 5 years old

Tatiana Perez, 11, receives a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at a vaccination center in San Jose, Costa Rica January 11, 2022.

Booster shots for preschoolers through elementary school students have been approved by the FDA.

Moderna's shots for kids ages 6 through 17 are now approved by Pfizer. Two months after completion of the two-dose primary series or the most recent booster shot, the shots are given.

The new shots have to be approved by the CDC before they can be given to children. Independent vaccine experts will review the data when the CDC's advisory committee meets next week.

Pfizer's new boosters were approved for people ages 12 and up in September, while Moderna's were approved for adults ages 18 and older.

Pfizer said in a statement that it will ship its boosters as soon as the CDC approves them. Vaccinations are expected to start as the school year gets into full swing and just before the holidays when health officials expect a spike in infections.

As children head back to school and families return to their pre-pandemic lives, there is an increased risk of exposure to the H1N1 virus, according to Dr. Peter Marks, head of the FDA's vaccine division.

Children get hospitalized with Covid more often than adults. He said that health officials are worried about the risk of long Covid in children who have had mild illness from the virus.

Marks said that parents should consider primary vaccinations for their children and follow up with an updated booster dose when eligible.

The FDA hopes the new boosters will provide better protection against infections and diseases than the first generation of Covid shots.

There was no direct human data on the effectiveness of the shots. The boosters were cleared by the agency based on the data from the shot. Kids who received the original vaccines as boosters were looked at by the agency.

Omicron BA.5 and the original strain of Covid were the targets of the new boosters. Even though the virus continues to evolve, the FDA hopes the shots will provide long term protection.

The original strain of Covid was the focus of the first generation of Covid shots. They are no longer providing protection against infections because they don't match the dominant omicron variant, which can cause mild illness.

The new booster shots have been given to more than 11 million Americans.

It is not clear how strong demand will be among parents. A booster shot is given to people ages 5 and older.