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  6.  » FDA approves unpopular bivalent Covid shot for BABIES and ‘encourages parents to get their child vaccinated before the holidays’
  • Agency green-lit plans for updated shot to be given as part of three-dose course
  • Children aged six months to four years will get bivalent as their third mini dose
  • Yet the booster shots are very unpopular among adults – with uptake at just 13%

Connor Boyd and Mansur Shaheen – Daily Mail Dec 8, 2022

US health officials today approved Pfizer and Moderna‘s bivalent Covid vaccines for babies, in a move bound to draw criticism.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has green-lit plans for the updated shots to be given as part of a three-dose course for children aged six months to four years.

Agency officials said they ‘encourage parents and caregivers’ to get their child vaccinated ‘especially as we head into the holidays and winter months’.

It comes after a study found the bivalent vaccines are significantly weaker against a rising Covid variant expected to become dominant in the US in months.

Pre-school-aged children were already allowed to receive three extra-small doses of Pfizer’s original Covid vaccine, instead of the standard two-dose regimen for adults.

The move will see them given the Omicron-specific booster – made by either Pfizer of Moderna – as their third and final shot.

Officials recommend the children to receive the bivalent shot from the same brand they received their first two vaccine shots from.

So a child who receive the Pfizer vaccine for their first two doses should get the Pfizer bivalent shot as well.

FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said: ‘More children now have the opportunity to update their protection against COVID-19 with a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine.

‘And we encourage parents and caregivers of those eligible to consider doing so – especially as we head into the holidays and winter months where more time will be spent indoors.

‘As this virus has changed, and immunity from previous COVID-19 vaccination wanes, the more people who keep up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations, the more benefit there will be for individuals, families and public health by helping prevent severe illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths.’

The move comes despite the bivalent shots proving highly unpopular among even adult Americans.

Only 40million have received the shot – tailored specifically to the Omicron variant – which is the equivalent of 13 percent of the US population.

The shots have been even less popular among parents with children under five. Only 9.3 percent of those aged two to four have received at least one vaccine dose, and 4.6 percent have completed their vaccine series.

For children under two, only 6.4 percent have gotten their primary shot and 2.7 percent all three.

Covid is not a major threat to young children, though. The CDC reports 1,378 deaths among minors in America, with more than half suffering from a pre-existing condition.

 

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