The United States is advising everyone aged 12 and above to receive a COVID-19 booster as soon as they are eligible to help battle the highly contagious omicron mutant that is sweeping the country.
Boosters were originally recommended for all 16- and 17-year-olds, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention authorized an additional Pfizer injection for younger kids — those aged 12 to 15 — and enhanced its advice for 16- and 17-year-olds.
The CDC’s director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, said in a statement Wednesday night, “It is vital that we protect our children and teenagers against COVID-19 infection and the implications of severe illness.”
“COVID-19 and the Omicron version will be better protected with this booster dosage. I advise all parents to follow the CDC’s COVID-19 immunization recommendations for their children, “she stated
According to experts, vaccines continue to give good protection against severe sickness caused by any type of COVID-19, including omicron. The newest mutation, on the other hand, can get beyond a layer of vaccination protection and produce milder illnesses. According to studies, a booster dosage boosts virus-fighting antibodies to levels that give the highest chance of avoiding symptomatic infection, even from omicron.
The CDC’s independent scientific experts debated whether a booster should be a choice for younger teenagers, who are less likely to get sick with COVID-19 than adults, or should be highly advised.
Dr. Sarah Long of Drexel University, a CDC expert, advised that giving teenagers a booster for a transient boost in virus protection is like playing whack-a-mole. The additional dose, she added, was worth it to help drive back the omicron mutant and protect youngsters from missing school and other issues that occur with even a minor case of COVID-19.
More importantly, the impact “is utterly shattering” if a kid with a minor virus passes it to a more fragile parent or grandparent, who eventually dies, according to panelist Dr. Camille Kotton of Massachusetts General Hospital.
Dr. Jamie Loehr of Cayuga Family Medicine in Ithaca, New York, concurred, “Let’s smack this one down.”
For American children of any age, the vaccination developed by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech is the sole alternative. According to the CDC, about 13.5 million youngsters aged 12 to 17 years old — slightly more than half of that age group — had received two Pfizer vaccines. Last month, boosters were made available to 16 and 17-year-olds.
Following Wednesday’s ruling, around 5 million younger kids who had their last vaccine in the spring will be eligible for a booster dose immediately soon. According to new US recommendations, anybody who has had two Pfizer immunizations and is due for a booster can get it five months after their last injection instead of the six months previously suggested.
However, one committee member, Vanderbilt University’s Dr. Helen Keipp Talbot, was concerned that such a strong recommendation for adolescent boosters might divert attention away from getting vaccines into the hands of children who had not been vaccinated at all.
The experts reviewed data from the United States, which showed that symptomatic COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are seven to eleven times greater in unvaccinated adolescents than in vaccinated adolescents.
Despite the fact that children are less likely than adults to become very ill from COVID-19, the number of children admitted to hospitals during the omicron wave is rising, with the vast majority of them being unvaccinated.
During the public comment phase of Wednesday’s session, Dr. Julie Boom of Texas Children’s Hospital remarked that a booster recommendation for younger children “cannot come soon enough.”
An uncommon adverse effect termed myocarditis, a form of heart inflammation observed predominantly in younger males and teen boys who get either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines are the main safety concern for teenagers. The great majority of instances are modest — significantly milder than the
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