The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday increased the approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid booster to cover 16- and 17-year-olds, citing rising concerns about the Omicron variant’s capacity to overcome two-shot immunity.
The FDA’s decision comes a day after the businesses announced the findings of lab studies showing that three doses appeared to be successful against Omicron, but that two doses were probably insufficient to stop infection — but they could still avoid severe sickness.
There had been concerns about declining immunity before Omicron emerged, and the United States and many other northern hemisphere countries are currently experiencing winter waves caused by the prevalent Delta strain.
Six months following the first vaccine series, the expanded emergency use authorization (EUA) kicks in.
