The FDA has been asked to approve bivalent vaccine boosters for children on an emergency basis by the two largest US manufacturers of COVID vaccines, Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.
Pfizer said in a news release on Monday that its booster would be for kids aged 5 to 11 who have finished their main vaccine series. According to a tweet from Moderna on Friday, the revised boosters are for kids aged 6 to 17 who have finished their initial vaccine series.
Children aged 12 to 17 would receive the same dose of the Moderna booster as adults, while children aged 6 to 11 would only receive half the dose from the same vial, according to the CDC’s Sept. 20 update to its fall vaccination planning guidance.
The CDC document stated, “If approved by FDA, CDC expects recommending bivalent COVID-19 vaccination as a booster for paediatric age groups in early to mid-October.”
Additionally, Moderna tweeted that a form for kids aged 6 months to under 6 should be finished this year.
For older adults who have finished their primary vaccine series, bivalent boosters that target both the original COVID strain and the BA.4 and BA.5 strains of Omicron became available earlier this month. People 18 and older can now take Moderna’s bivalent booster, while those 12 and older can take Pfizer’s.
Around Labor Day weekend, the most recent booster became accessible to the general public, and as of September 21, the CDC estimates that 4.4 million people have received it.
