Almost 30 percent of children in the United States are now double vaccinated. Nevertheless, the omicron wave is bringing more and more children to the hospital. Now there is an approval for the booster vaccination.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a booster vaccination against the coronavirus for children between the ages of five and eleven.
This is possible with the Biotech-Pfizer vaccine and at least five months after the first vaccinations, the FDA said on Tuesday. Test series have shown that the boosters are also safe in this age group. “During the omicron wave, more children contracted the disease and had to be hospitalized. They can also be affected by long-term consequences, even after just a mild illness,” said the FDA’s Robert Califf.
According to data from the CDC, around 29 percent of children between the ages of five and eleven in the United States have been vaccinated twice. About six percent are only vaccinated once. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the authority has had 334 Covid deaths between the ages of 5 and 14 in its statistics – four times as many deaths as from the flu in the same period. It is expected that in the coming days the CDC will follow the FDA approval and recommend the use of a booster.