CDC Enables Younger Children to Get Updated COVID-19 Boosters After FDA Authorization

Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine is prepared in Los Angeles, Calif., on Jan. 7, 2022. Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has now enabled younger children to receive updated COVID-19 vaccine boosters.

The CDC’s move came hours after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted emergency authorization on Oct. 12 to Moderna and Pfizer for their updated COVID-19 vaccine booster doses for children between the ages of 5 and 11.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky didn’t appear to recommend the updated vaccine boosters, but her signature on a memorandum means that children in the age group can start receiving the vaccine booster doses.

Children as young as 6 can now receive the Moderna vaccine booster, while children as young as 5 can now receive the Pfizer vaccine booster.

Previously, the Moderna booster was available to adults, and the Pfizer booster was available to those aged 12 and older.

FDA officials suggested that the emergency use authorizations were granted because the vaccines protect against hospitalization and severe illness.

“Vaccination remains the most effective measure to prevent the severe consequences of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death,” Dr. Peter Marks, a top FDA official, said in a statement.

But there are no human data that support the claim for the updated vaccine boosters.

“Remarkable that FDA based this recommendation for children of this age group on no evidence whatsoever relevant to the currently circulating BA.5 strain. Zero. Not even eight mice,” Dr. Harvey Risch, a professor emeritus of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, told The Epoch Times in an email.

FDA officials said authorization was based on data from testing on an earlier investigational booster that didn’t target BA.5 and was never released in the United States. That testing was only for adults (Moderna) and people older than 55 (Pfizer). They also pointed to safety and efficacy data from the old booster.

The new boosters contain spike protein components of the Wuhan virus strain and the BA.4/BA.5 subvariants. The virus causes COVID-19. BA.5 is currently the dominant strain in the United States.

The FDA originally authorized the new vaccine boosters in August. As part of the action, the regulatory agency revoked authorization for the old vaccine boosters, which contain only the Wuhan strain. The primary series of all COVID-19 vaccines in the United States still only target that strain.

Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel speaks at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on May 23, 2022. Fabrice Coffrini/Getty Images

The FDA and the CDC both bypassed their expert advisory panels before the Oct. 12 moves, part of an ongoing trend during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moderna, Pfizer, and Pfizer’s partner BioNTech praised the new authorizations.

Stéphane Bancel, Moderna’s CEO, said the company was “proud to have received authorization for our updated, bivalent COVID-19 booster for children and adolescents 6 to 17 years of age.”

“This milestone is important to be able to provide access to variant-adapted vaccines to a broader population,” said Dr. Ugur Sahin, CEO of BioNTech.

People can’t get the new vaccine boosters unless they’ve received a primary series. Approximately 9 million children aged 5 to 11 have received a primary series as of Oct. 7, according to CDC data. That’s about a third of the age group’s population.

Between 13 million and 15 million people in total had received one of the new vaccine boosters through Oct. 9, White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha told reporters in Washington this week.

As the weather turns cooler, “we tend to see a big uptick in flu vaccines, [and] we’re expecting more people to get the COVID vaccine,” Jha said.