FDA Authorizes Coronavirus Vaccines for Children Younger than 5

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday authorized both Moderna’s and Pfizer’s coronavirus shots for children under the age of five.

“Many parents, caregivers and clinicians have been waiting for a vaccine for younger children and this action,” FDA Commissioner Robert Califf said in a statement Friday.

“As we have seen with older age groups, we expect that the vaccines for younger children will provide protection from the most severe outcomes of COVID-19, such as hospitalization and death,” he added:

Today, we authorized emergency use of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19 to include use in children down to 6 months of age. https://t.co/DFnvVyQ8n6 pic.twitter.com/mXuN3oqZaa

— U.S. FDA (@US_FDA) June 17, 2022

For the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, we amended the EUA to include use of the vaccine in individuals 6 months through 4 years of age. The vaccine had been authorized for use in individuals 5 years of age and older.

— U.S. FDA (@US_FDA) June 17, 2022

The move comes two days after the FDA’s Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee unanimously approved the vaccines for young children. The vaccines are now pending final approval from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Notably, every state in the country, with the exception of Florida, preordered coronavirus vaccines for children under five, as the Florida Department of Health said the Sunshine State does “not need to be involved in the convoluted vaccine distribution process, especially when the federal government has a track record of developing inconsistent and unsustainable COVID-19 policies.”

However, the Florida Department of Health’s Jeremy Redfern made it clear that doctors themselves “can order vaccines if they are in need.”

“There are currently no orders in the Department’s ordering system for the COVID-19 vaccine for this age group,” he added.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) also discussed the state’s decision on Thursday, explaining that Florida officials believe the “risks outweigh the benefits.”

“Our Department of Health has been very clear the risks outweigh the benefits. And we recommend against — that’s not the same as banning it,” DeSantis said during Thursday’s press conference, emphasizing that people can still access them when they become available.

“Doctors can get it. Hospitals can get it. But there’s not gonna be any state programs that are gonna be trying to, you know, get COVID jabs to infants and toddlers and newborns,” he added.