The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday amended the Emergency Use Authorizations (EUAs) for the new Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 Omicron booster shots for children as young as 5 years old — despite having no direct data on the safety or effectiveness of the shots in children.
Within hours, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), signed off on the boosters — without a meeting of the CDC’s independent panel of vaccine experts.
“FDA’s authorization of updated (bivalent) COVID-19 vaccines for this younger age group, and CDC’s recommendation for use, are critical next steps forward in our country’s vaccination program,” CDC officials said in a statement.
Commenting on the news, Brian Hooker, Ph.D., P.E., told The Defender, “It is preposterous to vaccinate these children with untested boosters, especially when the risks of the COVID-19 virus are minimal in this population.”
Hooker, chief scientific officer at Children’s Health Defense, continued:
“Since the approval of mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 in the U.S., there have been 162 reported deaths attributed to these vaccines in individuals age 17 and under.
“Yet the mortality associated with the COVID-19 virus in this age group is less than one in 100,000 cases.”
