OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 1:08 PM PT – Thursday, October 13, 2022
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized the use of the updated COVID-19 booster shots on children between the ages of six and 17.
On Wednesday, the organization announced that they have granted emergency authorization to Pfizer’s COVID-19 booster.
Senior Vice President of Pfizer’s Clinical Research and Development, Bill Gruber, weighed in on the announcement.
“We want to have the best of both worlds,” he said. “We want to have the best protection that we can for variants that might be closer to the original variant while at the same time extending protection to ba. 4 or 5, which is distant now from the original vaccine in terms of its make-up.”
Additionally, doctors such as Jason Newland from Washington University in Saint Louis, emphasized the importance of the FDA’s authorization. However, recent studies say the vaccine could be dangerous for young men.
“The Moderna bivalent vaccine being cleared as boosters for the six up to 17 is extremely important, especially for those who have gotten Moderna early on and like the Moderna vaccine now,” Newland said. “Both vaccines, whether it was Moderna or Pfizer throughout the trials, have shown efficacy.”
Newland addressed the lack of clinical trials for the Pfizer booster. He said that there should be no reason to be concerned because it is a standard industry practice. He pointed to the influenza vaccine as an example.
“The lack of clinical trials that were testing these specific bivalent vaccines in teenagers has given people pause, especially parents,” he said. “However, we have been doing this for years upon years with influenza vaccine. I am trusting and my own teenagers are getting this vaccine because we have such great data from a safety and efficacy standpoint.”
This statement comes after recent revelations at a European Union hearing revealed that a Pfizer executive admitted that the company did not know if their vaccine could stop the transmission of the virus.
In spite of all, data has suggested that young children only represent 19% of the reported COVID-19 cases that have been reported since the pandemic began.
Be the first to comment