Omicron runs, and America tries to keep up. The Food and Drug Administration, the US drug regulator, has cleared the third dose of Pfizer vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds, ahead of schools reopening after the winter break. The agency announced that it has changed the Emergency Use Authorization (Eua) for the shield product to expand the use of the third booster dose to this age group. Two other points have been changed: the time interval between the primary vaccination cycle and the booster has been reduced to “at least 5 months”. Previously, the minimum time to elapse from the second dose was 6 months.
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Green light also to the third additional dose (third dose as part of a primary course) for some immunocompromised children between the ages of 5 and 11 years. “With the current wave of the Omicron variant, it is essential to continue to adopt effective and life-saving preventive measures such as primary vaccination and anti-Covid boosters, the use of masks and social distancing to effectively fight the virus”, underlined the commissioner interim of the FDA, Janet Woodcock.
In the US, according to the CDC, about 13.5 million children aged 12 to 17, just over half of the total, have received two doses of Pfizer.