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Kids Under 5 Could Start Getting Pfizer COVID Jabs Within Weeks, Says Report

Pfizer and its partner, BioNTech, are ready to ask the FDA for an emergency-use authorization.

Kids between 6 months and 5 years old could start getting COVID shots by the end of this month, The Washington Post reports. Pfizer and its partner, BioNTech, are reportedly ready to ask the Food and Drug Administration to give the go-ahead for an emergency-use authorization that would allow its two-dose vaccine to be rolled out to younger children for the first time. The FDA’s advisers are expected to discuss the application mid-February, meaning the authorization could be secured by the end of the month. According to the Post, Pfizer’s tests show that a third dose will be needed to give kids the best possible protection, but data on a third shot won’t be ready until March. “We know that two doses isn’t enough, and we get that,” one unnamed person with knowledge of the situation told the newspaper. “The idea is, let’s go ahead and start the review of two doses. If the data holds up in the submission, you could start kids on their primary baseline months earlier than if you don’t do anything until the third-dose data comes in.”