Moderna on Thursday asked US regulators to authorize low doses of its Covid-19 vaccine for children younger than six, a long-awaited move toward potentially making injections available for millions of children by summer.
Frustrated families are waiting impatiently for a chance to protect the nation’s youngest kids as all around them people shed masks and other public health precautions – even though highly contagious coronavirus mutants continue to spread.
Moderna submitted data to the Food and Drug Administration that it hopes will prove two low-dose shots can protect babies, toddlers and preschoolers – albeit not as effectively during the omicron surge as earlier in the pandemic.
“There is an important unmet medical need here with these youngest kids,” said Dr Paul Burton, Moderna’s chief medical officer, to the Associated Press. Two kid-size shots “will safely protect them. I think it is likely that over time they will need additional doses. But we’re working on that”.
