Pfizer says three doses of its vaccine provides ‘strong’ immunity against COVID for kids 6 months to 5 years old

Three doses of a child-size Pfizer COVID vaccine is both safe and effective for kids from six months to 5 years old, the company said Monday.

Pfizer plans to submit its trial data to the Food and Drug Administration this week as parents of young children push frantically for protection from the virus for their tots.

The trial, performed on 1,678 children while omicron was at its peak, injected a third dose of shots that were 1/10th the strength given to adults. A month later, antibody levels showed a similar immune response as two doses given to 16-to-25-year-olds — about 80% efficacy, Pfizer said.

The shot was “well tolerated” and most side effects were “mild or moderate,” the company reported.

The first two doses in the trial were given three weeks apart, and the final shot came at least two months later.

“Our COVID-19 vaccine has been studied in thousands of children and adolescents, and we are pleased that our formulation for the youngest children, which we carefully selected to be one-tenth of the dose strength for adults, was well tolerated and produced a strong immune response,” Albert Bourla, the chairman and CEO at Pfizer, said in a statement.

“These topline safety, immunogenicity and efficacy data are encouraging, and we look forward to soon completing our submissions to regulators globally with the hope of making this vaccine available to younger children as quickly as possible, subject to regulatory authorization.”

Children under 5 are the only group of the population not yet eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine. Moderna submitted its own data to the FDA in late April.

The FDA said Monday it will meet June 15 to consider both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s requests.