USA
Booster for teenagers: US agency allows third vaccination for 12 to 15 year olds
High school freshman Jeff Eseroma, 14, will be vaccinated at a coronavirus vaccination clinic for students 12 and older in San Pedro, California. The pupils could soon be vaccinated a third time here.
© Damian Dovarganes / AP / DPA
The benefits outweigh the risks: With this justification, the US FDA approved the booster for adolescents aged 12 and over. And younger people can also be boosted under certain circumstances.
There is great fear of the social and economic consequences of the new Omikron variant in the United States. Most recently, the CDC health authority reduced the quarantine period for infected vaccinated people from ten to five days. The reason: This is how the critical infrastructure should continue to be maintained. Now the authorities are taking a further step: the US FDA approved booster vaccinations against the coronavirus for 12 to 15-year-olds on Monday.
After evaluating data on 6,300 young people in Israel, the authority came to the conclusion that the additional protection against the virus, against hospital treatment and against deaths clearly outweighed the low risks. In the United States, only the Biontech and Pfizer vaccine is approved for children and adolescents between the ages of 5 and 17.
The FDA also said that it is possible to give a third dose of vaccine to some at-risk children between the ages of five and eleven with a particularly weakened immune system – for example after an organ donation.
Booster against omicron spread
The agency has also reduced the time it takes to get booster vaccinations for all ages with the vaccine from Biontech and Pfizer from six to five months. For Moderna vaccinated people in the USA, there is initially six months between the second vaccination and the booster.
As the Reuters agency reports, The FDA decided to use the booster for 12- to 15-year-olds because the virus could spread widely by returning to schools after the Christmas break. It is to be feared that the health system will continue to be burdened. The first schools had to close on Monday because the staff was sick.
Corona cases in the US have doubled to 418,000 new infections in the past week. 62 percent of the US population is double-vaccinated. A third of this is considered boosted. The FDA will decide whether five to eleven year olds should also be given a third dose if more children in this age group are double vaccinated. “Most recently, about 25 percent of 5 to 11-year-olds were vaccinated. It would be good to get a higher rate and then see how many months later they need to be boosted,” said an FDA spokesman.
Lauterbach allows booster vaccinations for teenagers in Germany
In Germany, children and adolescents aged 12 and over can receive a booster vaccination. According to Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, Stiko approval, which is currently still missing, and a vaccine approved for minors are not required. In addition he referred to it in a letterthat in the event of a vaccine damage, there is a right to care. The children and adolescents must, however, be vaccinated with an “approved MRNA vaccine”.