FDA authorizes booster for ages 5-11

The Food and Drug Administration is allowing a third shot of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for healthy elementary-age kids at least five months after their last dose. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s board of advisers is scheduled to meet Thursday and is expected to sign off on the authorization. Everyone 12 and older is already approved for one booster dose.

Is it effective? Pfizer makes the only COVID-19 vaccine available for children of any age in the United States. The dose for 5-to-11-year-olds is one-third the strength of those given to everyone 12 and older. The effectiveness of the booster dose for preventing illness in children is not yet known because not enough children in Pfizer’s study became sick with COVID-19, the company said. Children ages 5 to 11 have a very low risk of serious illness or death from the coronavirus.

Dig deeper: Read Juliana Chan Erikson’s article in Beginnings on what medications are effective against COVID-19.