There’s relief on the horizon: The White House has outlined early stages of a plan to make vaccines available this month to roughly 18 million children under 5
Photo: Courtesy H&M/Getty Images Although many vaccinated adults have been able to return to some semblance of normal life, the vaccine rollout for kids has been frustratingly slow. Last November, the FDA approved Pfizer’s vaccines for kids ages 5 to 11, and in May, it finally authorized booster shots for the age group to strengthen waning protection against COVID infections. But younger children have been left waiting.
Meanwhile, Pfizer originally planned to apply for emergency FDA approval for a two-dose regimen but has submitted an application for a three-dose vaccine, which their study found to produce a strong immune response in children under five. Earlier Pfizer-BioNTech studies found two doses of the Pfizer vaccine provided significant COVID-19 protection with no safety issues, but data collected during the Omicron surge indicated inadequate protection against infection among children ages 2 to 4.
Children ages 12 to 15 are eligible for booster shots. In March 2021, Pfizer reported that its trial of kids ages 12 to 15 found the vaccine to be 100 percent effective without any abnormal side effects among participants; FDA authorization followed in May. So far, the AAP has reported, 59 percent of kids ages 12 to 17 are fully vaccinated. While that percentage is slowly increasing, there’s still considerable vaccine hesitancy on the part of parents.