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U.S. FDA clears Pfizer’s COVID booster shot for young children

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized the use of a booster shot of Pfizer and Biontech's COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11, the regulator said on Tuesday.

The authorization makes everyone in the United States aged five and above eligible for booster doses of the vaccine, although the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) still needs to sign off on the shots.

“While it has largely been the case that COVID19 tends to be less severe in children than adults, the Omicron wave has seen more kids getting sick with the disease and being hospitalized,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said in a statement.

Califf said the authorization would help provide continued protection against COVID-19 in that age group. Data has shown that vaccine effectiveness starts to wane over time.

The U.S. government has been urging Americans to get boosters, and for the unvaccinated who are at much higher risk of severe COVID-19 and death to be inoculated.

But it is unclear how much many parents of children aged 5 to 11 will opt for a third dose. Just 28.8 per cent of children in that age group are fully vaccinated, according to CDC data.

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2022-05-18T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-18T07:00:00.0000000Z

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