What Do We Know About Bivalent Boosters for Children?
COVID vaccine boosters have been updated this fall: Pfizer for children 12 years of age and older, Moderna for children 18 years of age and older. Now younger children can join them. The FDA announced today that boosters from both companies are approved for children ages 5 and older. The CDC also issued an updated advisory that says kids in this age group should get new boosters.
The bivalent boosters contain two versions of the COVID vaccine, hence the name: one mRNA that codes for the same spike protein as the old vaccine and another that produces a spike protein that matches the one found in Omicron (BA.4 and BA .5 ) options. Getting this drug should provide better protection against future COVID infections than just getting another dose of the original vaccine formula.
Children tend to have milder symptoms than adults when they contract COVID, but serious cases are certainly possible, and every parent knows how easily germs can spread in schools and other places where children spend time together. It’s smart to get a flu shot every year to reduce your chances of getting sick and reduce the chance of you passing the disease on to other members of your family, like the elderly, and a COVID booster makes sense for the same reason.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, you do not need to count the number of previous immunizations given to children. Once they have received their primary series (the first two doses of Pfizer or Moderna, three if they are immunocompromised, or the appropriate number of doses of another vaccine) and at least two months or more have passed, they are considered eligible. for a new amplifier.
The FDA announcement provides more information about how they determined the new vaccine was safe and effective. Instead of doing all new trials on children, they used data from previous studies of the monovalent (original formula) vaccine, as well as data from older age groups.
Side effects are expected to be the same as with the original form of the booster: possible pain, redness and swelling at the injection site, as well as possible fatigue, headache and other mild symptoms.