(Washington) Pfizer said on Tuesday it had filed for approval for a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine in 16 and 17-year-old adolescents in the United States, amid concern over the appearance of the Omicron variant.
The booster is currently cleared by the US Medicines Agency (FDA) for all adults over the age of 18, six months after receiving the initial series of injections. The first two bites are authorized from 5 years old.
“Today, we filed a request with the FDA to extend the emergency authorization of a booster dose of our COVID-19 vaccine to include 16 and 17 year olds,” Albert Bourla tweeted. , the boss of Pfizer.
“Our hope is to provide strong protection for as many people as possible, especially in light of the new variant,” he added with reference to Omicron.
Experts are concerned that this variant reduces the effectiveness of vaccines because it has many mutations on the spike protein, which is its key to entering cells.
But scientists believe the boosters could help maintain that protection, including increasing the levels of antibodies that fight the virus in the body.
“When you strengthen them, you get a level so high, that even if the mutations of different variants decrease the level of protection, you are always in the range of a certain level of protection”, explained the advisor of the House. -White on the health crisis, Anthony Fauci, at a press conference on Tuesday.
“And this manifests itself most in protection against severe cases of the disease, leading to hospitalization,” he added.
While more than 200 cases of the Omicron variant have been confirmed in 20 countries, according to US health authorities, it has not yet been detected in the United States, where the Delta variant remains ultra-dominant.
Adolescents are also generally much less likely than older adults to develop a severe case of the disease.
They are also more prone to an increased risk of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, after vaccination with the remedies from Pfizer and Moderna, which has led authorities to adopt a cautious posture regarding a booster in young categories of population.