- The FDA approved a COVID-19 vaccine for younger adolescents, meaning children as young as 12 now have access to a COVID-19 vaccine.
- But parents of younger children may wonder when their child can get the vaccine.
- Vaccine studies for younger children are ongoing, with results possibly by early fall.
Nearly half of people in the United States have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), bringing the country closer to the end of the pandemic.
But a large segment of the population has yet to be vaccinated. Many of those are children and younger adolescents, who were not eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine.
Until this week.
On May 10, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expanded the emergency use authorization for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to include adolescents as young as 12 years old.
This development, along with the wide availability of vaccine doses in the United States, will help the country regain a sense of normalcy sooner.
“The more immunized children we have, the easier it is going to be for our communities to safely reopen, and to reopen schools and get after-school sports going again,” said Dr. Walter Dehority, an associate professor in the department of pediatrics at the University of New Mexico.
Other COVID-19 vaccines may be approved for younger adolescents over the next few months.
Younger children, though, will have to wait longer — possibly early fall or late in the year — because the studies for this age group are just getting up to speed.
Here’s a breakdown of where things stand with COVID-19 vaccines for children and adolescents.
Source: healthline