In Time For Flu Season? Moderna’s Covid Shot Cleared For Kids Aged 6 Months To 11 Years In US | World News
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The US Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to Moderna’s Spikevax vaccine and the company is hopeful of releasing the updated version for the 2025-26 flu season
A Moderna Spikevax Covid-19 vaccine is seen at a drugstore in the US. (Image: AP/File)
Previously available only under “emergency use authorisation” for paediatric needs, Moderna’s Covid vaccine was cleared in the United States for children aged six months to 11 years.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted full approval to Moderna’s Spikevax vaccine and the company is hopeful of releasing the updated version for the 2025-26 flu season.
According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC), flu season in the US usually occurs in the autumn and winter. While influenza viruses spread year-round, flu activity peaks between December and February.
This comes as doctors’ groups and public health organisations sued the US government on July 7 over the decision to stop recommending coronavirus vaccinations for most children and pregnant women. In late May, Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr announced he was removing Covid-19 shots from the CDC’s recommendations for healthy children and pregnant women.
According to a report by news agency Reuters, the Moderna vaccine will be available for at-risk infants and children from the age of six months to 11 years, the company said on Thursday.
Despite the recent changes made by Kennedy – a leading anti-vaccine activist before becoming the nation’s top health official – the CDC said shots remain an option for healthy children when parents and doctors agree that it is needed. It recommended updated Covid vaccines for everyone aged six months and older, following the guidance of its panel of outside experts.
WHAT DID KENNEDY DO?
Kennedy fired a 17-member expert health panel this month and replaced it with a group that includes several anti-vaccine voices.
The Associated Press reported that doctors said Kennedy’s actions are making their jobs harder, with patients raising doubts about all kinds of vaccines and others worried they will lose access to shots for themselves and their children.
“This is causing uncertainty and anxiety at almost every pediatric visit that involves vaccines,” Dr Susan Kressly, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told The Associated Press.
The AP report said in the US, paediatric flu deaths hit their highest mark in 15 years with the nation poised to have its worst year of measles in more than three decades.
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Washington D.C., United States of America (USA)
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