U.S. FDA OKs Pfizer COVID-19 booster for 16 and 17-year-olds – Nationwide

The U.S. Meals and Drug Administration on Thursday approved booster photographs of the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE these aged 16 and 17, as public well being officers have urged People to get the extra photographs on issues concerning the new Omicron variant of the virus.

The emergency use authorization (EUA) will permit 16- and 17-year-olds to obtain their third shot a minimum of six months after their second vaccine dose.

Regulators from the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC) possible have to log off on the photographs earlier than the youngsters can start receiving the doses. Round 4.7 million 16- and 17-year-olds in the US are totally vaccinated and greater than 2.5 million of them are six months previous their second dose.

Some scientists have raised issues about extra photographs for the age group due to the elevated threat of uncommon circumstances of coronary heart irritation in younger males which were linked to messenger RNA vaccines such because the Pfizer/BioNTech shot.

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All U.S. adults are at present eligible for booster photographs of the three approved COVID-19 vaccines.

The FDA’s authorization comes a day after Pfizer and BioNTech launched information suggesting that booster photographs may very well be key to safety towards an infection from the newly recognized Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

The CDC has recognized fewer than 100 circumstances of Omicron in the US, however they’re anticipated to extend within the coming weeks and months.

In the meantime, the dominant Delta variant, which may be very transmissible and might be handed on by people who find themselves totally vaccinated, has pushed up infections. Areas the place actions have moved indoors for winter, such because the Northeast, have seen among the greatest will increase in new circumstances, which now common near 120,000 every day.

— Reporting by Radhika Anilkumar in Bengaluru and Michael Erman in New Jersey

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