CDC Is Deciding Whether To Recommend Moderna's Covid Vaccine To Kids Of All Ages
It's hard to believe we're still hearing discussions about administering the coronavirus vaccine to children, especially now that we have so much data showing that the virus poses very little risk to kids at all.
But the CDC is preparing to recommend the vaccine to children of all ages. The recommendation will likely start with the Moderna coronavirus vaccine.
CDC Is Deciding Whether To Recommend Moderna's Covid Vaccine to Kids of All Ages
The CDC has outside vaccine advisers that it routinely consults before making decisions about policy and recommendations to the public. These advisers just voted unanimously yesterday to recommend the Moderna coronavirus vaccine to school-age children. This isn't surprising considering the fact that the CDC recently recommended both the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines for preschoolers, toddlers, and babies as young as 6 months old.
Since the CDC recommended the Pfizer vaccine for kids as young as 5 years old, more than a third of adolescents between 12 and 17 haven't been administered the shot and more than two-thirds of kids 5-11 are unvaccinated. One explanation for this may be the fact that parents are more skeptical of the vaccine than ever, according to surveys conducted by the CDC.
"I think a lot of providers are probably going to carry one vaccine or the other, and not both. And that's because of the concerns about wastage, but also, these vaccines are very different in their dosages and age groups, and just to avoid vaccine administration errors," Molly Howell of the Association of Immunization Managers told the CDC.
The Moderna booster has not been authorized by the FDA yet for kids, but federal health officials expect that a third dose will be officially recommended soon for children.