Pfizer seeks vaccine authorization for kids under 5
A nurse prepares a child’s COVID-19 vaccine dose at Children’s National Hospital in Washington. Associated Press/Photo by Carolyn Kaster, file

Pfizer-BioNTech on Tuesday asked the Food and Drug Administration to authorize its two-shot COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 6 months to 4 years. The emergency use authorization is expected to receive approval by the end of February. The FDA authorized vaccines for kids ages 5 to 12 in November.
How will it work? Young children would receive the vaccine at one-tenth the strength of the adult shot. In 2021, Pfizer announced the two-dose shot proved to be less effective at preventing COVID-19 in kids ages 2 to 5. That was partly due to the more contagious omicron strain. Regulators urged the company to add a third dose to the study. Pfizer is still awaiting data on the three-dose vaccine and said it would apply for authorization in the coming months.
Dig deeper: Read Daniel James Devine’s report in Beginnings about how the omicron variant affected hospitals.
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