U.S. authorities have allowed a booster vaccination against coronavirus for adolescents aged 12 years and older and children with immune system disorders aged five years and older. This is reported by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the country's Department of Health, reports UNN.
Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine will be used for revaccination.
"The FDA supplemented the rules for emergency use of the vaccine, expanding the list to include those between the ages of 12 and 15. Also, the period between completion of full vaccination (two doses of vaccine) and revaccination is reduced to at least five months. A third dose of the vaccine is allowed to be administered to children with immune system problems from five to 11 years of age," the report says.
The agency notes that it made the decision after reviewing data from Israel, according to which the use of the vaccine from Pfizer proved to be safe. Israeli medical professionals provided U.S. information on revaccination of 6.3 thousand people between the ages of 12 and 15. This information allowed for a different assessment of the benefits and risks of revaccinating adolescents in the current COVID-19 outbreak," the office notes, assuring that booster vaccination is safe.
For children five to 11 years old who are at risk - those with immune system diseases, comorbidities and organ transplant survivors - revaccination is recommended because two doses of the vaccine may not give them enough protection against the virus. However, those children in the same age group who do not suffer from the disease and are already fully vaccinated do not need revaccination yet.
"FDA continues to review the information and is discussing the need to revaccinate this category," the report notes.
The FDA reminds us that a third dose of the vaccine can give people great protection against the omicronovirus strain of coronavirus.
Vaccination of children from 5 years old in the U.S. has been allowed since Nov. 8. It uses the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which the FDA approved for use Oct. 29. The vaccine is administered to children in two doses, which are equal in quantity to a third of the dose for people over 12 years of age. During the clinical trial period, the vaccine showed 91 percent efficacy among children.
The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for adolescents 12 to 15 years old was approved in May 2021. For adults, it was approved by the World Health Organization on December 31, 2020. On June 24, 2021, the WHO said it could be used to prevent COVID-19 in children and adolescents.
According to WHO, more than 525,000 people in the United States have been infected with the coronavirus in the past 24 hours, 2,445 people have died, and about 200 million people have been fully vaccinated.
