The US expanded the application of booster doses for adolescents between 12 and 15 years of age

The US expanded the application of booster doses for adolescents between 12 and 15 years of age

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In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the US health authority, will need to decide whether to recommend boosters for teens younger than 12. Meanwhile, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, will speak later this week.

The FDA also said that everyone over the age of 12 who is eligible for a booster from Pfizer can receive it. five months after your last dose, instead of six months.

The FDA Vaccine Chief, Peter Marks, indicated in a statement that the agency made its decision since a reinforcement “can help provide better protection against Delta and Omicron variants”, especially since the last one is “slightly more resistant” to vaccine-induced antibodies that help defend against infection.

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Pfizer.

Data collected in Israel showed no side effects among more than 6,300 12-15 year olds who received a booster there at least five months after their second dose of Pfizer, the FDA noted.

Vaccines still offer a strong protection against serious diseases caused by any type of Covid-19. But health authorities urge all eligible people to receive a booster dose to have a better chance of avoiding milder infections from the highly contagious Omicron.

Although minors tend to suffer from less severe Covid-19 compared to adults, Children’s hospitalizations are on the rise in the United States during the current wave, most of them unvaccinated.

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Covid-19 in the USA.

The vaccine manufactured by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech is the only option for minors in the US. Approximately 13.5 million young people aged 12 to 17Just over half of that age group received two doses of Pfizer, according to the CDC.

For families hoping to keep their children as protected as possible, the age limit of reinforcement raised doubts. Older teens, ages 16 and 17, have been eligible for reinforcements since the beginning of last month. But the shifts for the first doses opened for teens ages 12-15 in May.

Doses for people ages 5 to 11 were only released in November and experts say healthy youngsters should be protected after their second dose for a while.

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Pfizer.

However, the FDA indicated on Monday that if children this young have severely weakened immune systems, a third dose will be allowed 28 days after the second, the same time frame for the third dose that is already recommended for immunosuppressed adolescents and adults.

Pfizer is studying its vaccine, in even smaller doses, for children under 5 years of age.

Source From: Ambito

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