The FDA had previously approved its use for children between the ages of five and eleven.
WASHINGTON – The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved this Thursday the emergency use of booster vaccines against the omicron variant of the coronavirus for children under five years of age.
Thus, children over six months of age who have two doses of the vaccine are eligible for a third booster, specifically designed to work against omicron infections.
The FDA had previously approved its use for children between five and eleven years of age, who are eligible for a “bivalent booster” -which works both for the original variants of the coronavirus and for the omicron subvariants that are currently the most extended.
The bivalent boosters were developed to combat a possible new wave of infections in the fall and winter of this year, something that health authorities have been warning for months that could happen if people do not take extreme precautions.
In fact, having not received approval for any of the new requests for funds that the US health authorities have made to the country’s Congress, the agencies have been forced to cut programs such as free tests to ensure the supply of vaccines.
Experts such as the coordinator of the White House response team against covid-19, Ashish Jha, or the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Rochelle Walensky, have been warning in the media for months that The lack of financing could put the US at the bottom of the world in the acquisition of vaccines and treatments against the disease.
In the country of 332 million inhabitants, more than a million people have died from the disease, the highest number recorded in the world.