FDA panel recommends Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for children as young as 6 months old
COVID-19 vaccines for the youngest kids could be available as soon as next week
An advisory panel to the FDA recommended both Pfizer and Modern's COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use authorization in children as young as 6 months old on Wednesday, clearing the way for kids to be vaccinated as soon as next week.
Roughly 18 million children younger than 5 years old represent the last group of Americans who still do not have a COVID-19 vaccine available to them.
Pharmacies around the country have already been ordering millions of doses of the kid-sized vaccines in anticipation of health officials' approval.
Pfizer's vaccine for kids is just a tenth of the size of the adult version and comes in three shots. The company's vaccine for kids aged 5 through 11 has already been approved.
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Moderna's vaccine for children, meanwhile, is a quarter the dose of their adult version and comes in two shots, though the company is testing a booster shot for kids as well.
FDA vaccine regulator Dr. Peter Marks said at Wednesday's meeting that 442 children younger than 4 have died from COVID-19 during the pandemic.
At least 442 children younger than 4 have died from COVID-19 during the pandemic, according to the FDA.
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"This is a long-awaited vaccine," Dr. Jay Portnoy, a FDA advisory committee member and doctor at the Children’s Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, said Wednesday.
"There are so many parents who are absolutely desperate to get this vaccine and I think we owe it to them to give them a choice to have the vaccine if they want to."
Pfizer's vaccine has been available to children between the ages of 5 and 17 since last year, but only about 60% of kids between the ages of 12 and 17 are fully vaccinated and less than a third of kids between the ages of 5 and 11 are fully vaccinated.
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Only 18% of parents with children younger than 5 said that they would immediately get their kids vaccinated once it's approved, while 38% said they would wait and see, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll taken in April.
The FDA is expected to give final approval to the vaccines for children in the coming days. An advisory committee to the CDC is scheduled to meet later this week, clearing the way for the vaccines for kids to hit shelves as soon as next week.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.