The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized this Monday the booster dose of Pfizer's vaccine against COVID-19 for children ages 12 to 15 years to face the record of cases driven by the omicron variant.
The booster doses were already authorized for all people 16 years of age or older but the federal authorities have concluded that they are also safe and effective for children aged 12 to 15. In any case, the approval of the Centers for Control and Control is lacking. Disease Prevention (CDC), which could occur in the next few hours.
The FDA further stated that all people 12 years of age and older can receive the Pfizer booster dose starting within five months of their last COVID-19 injection, rather than six months as previously recommended.
Avgieo Lopez receives her first dose of Pfizer against COVID-19 as her siblings wait for their turn on December 29, 2021 in Lawrence, Massachusetts.Charles Krupa / AP
The measure is known as millions of students return to classes across the country.
All minors 12 years or older can receive the two doses of vaccine, but until now only those 16 years or older could receive the booster dose, essential according to medical authorities to deal with the omicron variant.
The CDC released two studies last week that reinforce the need to vaccinate children: one of them concludes that the medical problems of children ages 5 to 11 who have received the Pfizer vaccine are extremely rare;
and the other analyzed hundreds of hospitalizations of minors in six cities during the summer and concluded that almost half of the children who became seriously ill had not been fully vaccinated.
So far, more than eight million doses of Pfizer's vaccine have been administered to children between the ages of 5 and 11 in the United States, but parents' doubts about their safety have slowed this campaign, according to The New York Times. .