FDA to approve Covid booster shots for children as young as five

The FDA will likely approve the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine this week, making it the first booster shot for children as young as five.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is reportedly going to approve Covid vaccine booster shots for children as young as five years old to 11 years, as early as Tuesday, May, 17, according to the New York Times.

Pfizer’s vaccine is currently the only vaccine available for children in the US, with children as young as five eligible for the first two doses of the jab, to which now, eligibility for a  booster will be added.

The amount of children taking the vaccine in these age groups is low, with the idea of boosters not proving as popular as health officials had initially hoped.

There is also a certain amount of controversy on the topic, with many experts debating the need for vaccines in children of such a young age, as they suffer very little health risks associated with the virus, counting for only 0.1 per cent of covid deaths sene in the last two years.

Children in this age group do, however, cace an increased risk of some of the more serious side effects seen from the vaccine, such as myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, with symptoms that include chest pain, irregular heartbeats, fluid buildup, fatigue and shortness of breath.