Do children 5-11 need a COVID booster? Pfizer says third dose offers ‘strong’ response
While the Pfizer COVID-19 booster is authorized for immunocompromised children ages 5 to 11, could healthy children in that same age group benefit from an extra shot?
Pfizer says a third vaccine dose offered a “strong immune response” in healthy children ages 5 to 11 and can protect them against original COVID-19 strain and omicron variant based on clinical trial data released April 14. The findings have not been peer-reviewed.
The company is looking to get a third shot authorized for younger children by the Food and Drug Administration and said in a news release it plans to present its data to the agency ”in the coming days.”
In the clinical trial, 140 children ages 5 to 11 received a third Pfizer vaccine dose six months after their second shot. It resulted in a sixfold increase in “neutralizing antibodies” against the original COVID-19 strain, Pfizer said.
A subanalysis of 30 of the young participants in the trial showed that a third shot produced a 36-fold increase in neutralizing antibodies against the omicron variant, according to the company’s data.
Response to the additional dose was reportedly not impacted by prior COVID-19 infection.
“These data reinforce the potential function of a third dose of the vaccine in maintaining high levels of protection against the virus in this age group,” Pfizer said.
The company noted how the extra dose was “well tolerated” among the 140 children involved in the trial.
“To date, more than 10,000 children under the age of 12 have participated in clinical trials investigating the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine,” Pfizer said.
In late January, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said that “in general, we see lower overall vaccine protection against omicron” when it comes to two vaccine doses, based on agency findings.
“However, vaccine effectiveness increased up to 82 percent for those who received their booster dose.”
Walensky also noted that “overall … those who received a booster dose had the most protection against emergency room visits, urgent care clinic visits, and hospitalizations.”
Pfizer said it also plans to share its clinical trial data with the European Medicines Agency as well as with other international regulatory agencies “as soon as possible.”
In March, a second booster dose of both Pfizer and Moderna was authorized by the FDA for those 50 and older, McClatchy News reported. Additionally, immunocompromised children ages 12 and older were made eligible to get a second Pfizer booster shot four months after their first booster.
Pfizer’s newly released data comes as the the omicron BA.2 subvariant makes up roughly 85% of COVID-19 cases throughout the U.S., CDC data shows.
Meanwhile, 99% of the country lives in an area with a low or medium COVID-19 Community Level as of April 14, the CDC reports. Less than 1% of the country lives in an area with high infection rates, and residents there are recommended to wear a mask indoors in public.
This story was originally published April 14, 2022 at 10:39 AM with the headline "Do children 5-11 need a COVID booster? Pfizer says third dose offers ‘strong’ response."
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