CDC advisers recommend booster shots for kids 5 to 11
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Kids a few years out of booster seats may soon be getting booster shots.
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel voted Thursday to recommend that children ages 5 to 11 receive Pfizer booster shots, four months after the agency endorsed extra jabs for Americans over 12.
The CDC typically follows the recommendations of its advisory committees. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, is expected to promptly follow the latest guidance.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 11 to 2 in favor of children over 5 receiving a booster shot at least five months after their initial inoculation series. One member of the panel abstained.
The vote came at the close of a five-hour virtual meeting. “If and when CDC concurs with this recommendation we will send a notice out,” Kristen Nordlund, a CDC spokeswoman, said in an email following the vote.
Booster shots provide rugged protection against the meddlesome coronavirus mutations that have continued to move through the population in the pandemic’s third year.
New York is currently riding out a wave of the virus powered by fast-spreading subvariants of the omicron strain, and officials have urged complete vaccination.
“The best way to stay out of the hospital with COVID-19 is by keeping up to date with your vaccination and booster doses,” Gov. Hochul said in a statement Thursday, as her office announced 19 more coronavirus deaths.
The state’s weeklong test positivity sat at a striking 7.7% on Thursday, according to government figures, up from 1.9% two months ago. In New York City, the rate was slightly lower — 5.4% — but rising, according to the governor’s office.
About 39% of all New Yorkers have received booster shots, according to state data. And only about 37% of New York children ages 5 to 11 have completed their initial vaccination series, according to the state Health Department.
Dr. Denis Nash, a professor of epidemiology at the City University of New York, said the CDC panel’s recommendation marked a “really important development” given the state’s recent spike in cases. He encouraged parents to take advantage.
“There’s really no real downside,” Nash said, “and only upside of protecting kids against severe disease and in some rare cases death.”
