The FDA has approved updated versions of COVID-19 vaccines, “which paves the way for distribution to pharmacies and doctors’ offices but complicates access for young children.” CIDRAP has the news.
The marketing authorizations announced cover “the Moderna vaccine for people ages 6 months and older, Pfizer for people ages 5 and older, and Novavax for people ages 12 and older.” HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., “a long-time vaccine skeptic,” has changed U.S. policy around vaccines to make it more difficult for some groups to access them. For now, “federal officials still recommend the vaccine for seniors, with more limited use to those younger than 65 with underlying health conditions, with the caveat for shared decision making based on doctors' advice.”
IDSA stated that “the FDA's narrowed labeling indications ignore science and put millions of American lives at risk.” The agency will work with “other medical societies to finalize updated recommendations for COVID vaccination in both healthy and immunocompromised adults as part of more comprehensive respiratory virus guidance for the fall and winter.”
In addition, the revocation of the emergency use authorization for the Pfizer vaccine that the only COVID vaccine approved for all children is now off the market. This new authorization for Pfizer “limits the use to those ages 5 and older.”
