CDC Now Recommending Vaccines for Everyone Age Six Months and Up

The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention updated its website Sunday in order to recommend COVID-19 vaccines to everyone ages six months and up as states prepare to offer shots to infants, toddlers and preschoolers.

On Friday – the U.S. Food & Drug Administration approved both Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines for patients as young as six months old – and the CDC Director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky approved the shots Saturday. The youngest patients were the last to get access to vaccines after the approval of elementary-age shots last fall.  Some doctors and pharmacies could begin offering shots TODAY (on Monday) – with  health officials in Alabama and 48 other states having preordered infant and toddler doses in anticipation of the approval.

The two vaccines have different dosages and schedules.   The Pfizer vaccine is scheduled as two three microgram doses which are given three weeks apart followed by a third shot eight weeks later.  The Moderna shot has two 25 microgram doses administered one month apart.  The most common side effect of the shots has been some pain, but some children also experienced fever, headache and fatigue.  The Moderna shot was 50.6% effective in preventing symptomatic COVID in children between the ages of 6 and 23 months, and almost 37% effective for children between the ages of 2 and 5.

(AL.COM/www.al.com)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is shown Sunday, March 15, 2020, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
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