Content of the article
Advisers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) voted unanimously Thursday to recommend the use of Moderna Inc.’s COVID-19 vaccine for children and teens ages 6 to 17.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky is expected to approve the recommendations soon, which would allow the U.S. government to begin deploying the Modern vaccine for these age groups.
This would mean that both COVID mRNA vaccines would be available to all Americans from 6 months of age.
Content of the article
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, based on a similar messenger RNA technology, has been available for teens for more than a year and for children ages 5 to 11 from October.
Approximately 25 million American children and adolescents in this age group have not yet received a single dose of COVID-19 vaccine, Sara Oliver, head of the CDC, told the expert advisory group.
There have been concerns that the Modern vaccine, which is given at a higher dose than the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, could cause types of heart inflammation at higher rates, mainly in younger men.
The agency said last week that the latest U.S. data showed that while there was a numerically higher rate of myocarditis or pericarditis with the Moderna vaccine, the findings were not statistically significant, meaning they could be due to chance.
The FDA authorized the Moderna vaccine last week for the 6 to 11 age group, along with the authorization for use in children 6 months to 5 years old. (Report by Manas Mishra and Leroy Leo in Bangalore, and Michael Erman in New Jersey; Bill Berkrot Edition)