The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) independent vaccine advisory committee today voted unanimously (15-0) to recommend adding COVID-19 vaccines for children as young as 6 months old to the new Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedule, which will be rolled out in February 2023. The revised recommendations accepted today by the committee include the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children as young as 6 months old and the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine for children as young as 12.
All COVID-19 vaccines being administered in the U.S. to people under 18 are Emergency Use Authorized (EUA) products. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration did grant full approval to Pfizer’s Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine for ages 12 and older, however, the Comirnaty vaccine is not available in the U.S. — which means all children who get the Pfizer vaccine are getting an EUA product.
When asked if an EUA product could be added to the schedule, Dr. A. Patricia Wodi, a member of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), said the U.S. Department of Justice Office of General Counsel confirmed for the CDC that EUA products can be added.