A panel advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted 13–1 to recommend Covid vaccine boosters for children ages 12–15 on Wednesday.
The panel, known as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, also urged the CDC to encourage booster shots for 16- and 17-year olds. The CDC and Food and Drug Administration have already approved boosters for ages 16–17, but the CDC has not encouraged all Americans in that age group to receive one.
CDC director Rochelle Walensky must give her approval in order to authorize boosters for young teenagers, and she is expected to do so shortly after the panel’s recommendation.
“Covid is overwhelming our hospitals and our children’s hospitals,” commented Katherine Poehling, M.D., a professor of pediatrics at Wake Forest School of Medicine and panel member. “This is a tool we need to use, and help our children through this pandemic.”
The decision came after panelists reviewed data on myocarditis and pericarditis in some recipients of the Covid vaccine from younger age groups.
The Israeli Health Ministry reported on Wednesday that it found two cases of myocarditis, both mild, among 44,000 children ages 12–15 who received a booster shot. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which approved booster shots for ages 12–15 on Monday, said at the time that it had found “no new safety concerns” linking a booster to myocarditis in teenagers.
The FDA “has determined that the protective health benefits of a single booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine to provide continued protection against COVID-19 and the associated serious consequences that can occur including hospitalization and death, outweigh the potential risks in individuals 12 through 15 years of age,” the agency said in a statement Monday.
The only Covid vaccine authorized for children younger than 18 in the U.S. is the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Source: National Review
