Is the vaccine available for children younger than 5?

Yes, the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccine series are now available for children as young as 6 months old. On June 21 — 18 months after a New York nurse received the first U.S. coronavirus vaccination — the youngest Americans started getting the shots at pediatrician offices, hospitals and pharmacies across the country.

Is it the same vaccine given to older children?

No, children in the youngest age group are administered a smaller dose. For the Pfizer vaccine series , children ages 6 months through 4 years are given three 3-microgram doses, which is one-tenth of the adult dose. The first two doses are administered three weeks apart, and the third dose is administered at least eight weeks after the second dose. For the Moderna vaccine series , children ages 6 months through 5 years are given two 25-microgram doses — or one-quarter of the dose given to adults — four weeks apart. Additional primary doses and booster shots are not currently recommended for children younger than 5.

What about the other vaccine?

The Johnson & Johnson shot is not currently available for children. Asked about a pediatric vaccine, Johnson & Johnson said in an email earlier this year that trials were underway for adolescents ages 12 to 17 but that the vaccine “is not currently authorized for use in children.”

Do children younger than 5 need to be vaccinated against the coronavirus?

Some parents have asked whether younger children need the vaccine, particularly given that children tend to have less-severe illness than adults. But Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said children still can “suffer and be hospitalized and die from this virus.” Since the start of the pandemic, more than 13.5 million children in the United States have tested positive for the coronavirus, resulting in about 40,000 hospitalizations and more than 1,000 deaths, according to the most recent data from the American Academy of Pediatrics. In addition, children are at risk of significant complications. More than 8,500 children have suffered a rare but serious condition called multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), which is associated with covid-19 and can cause inflammation of the heart , lungs, kidneys, brain, eyes and other organs, according to the CDC.

Should I be concerned about serious adverse reactions?

Although there is no real-world data on serious adverse reactions for children younger than 5, in general, such events are rare. Anaphylaxis — a severe allergic reaction that can cause difficulty breathing, among other things — can occur after any vaccination, including the coronavirus vaccine. As of June 16, 80 reports of anaphylaxis after the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) for eligible children ages 5 to 17, but those cases have not been confirmed, the CDC said. Thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS), which causes blood clots, is another known adverse reaction that is more often seen after the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. But it is exceedingly rare — even more so in the case of the mRNA vaccines. And the CDC said that there have been no reports of TTS in the VAERS among children of any age.

What about myocarditis?

There have been very rare instances of heart muscle inflammation in vaccinated adolescents and young adults. Although it has been reported after vaccination, experts say the coronavirus-caused covid-19 itself is more likely to cause myocarditis than the vaccine, especially in children who develop MIS-C because of the disease. More than 250 million Americans have received at least one vaccine dose, including more than 36 percent of people ages 5 to 11, 69 percent of people ages 12 to 17 and 78 percent of people ages 18 to 24, according to the CDC . As of June 9, more than 1,000 preliminary reports of myocarditis or pericarditis (inflammation of the outer lining of the heart) were reported to the VAERS among people younger than 18 in the United States who received a coronavirus vaccination. About 650 of those cases have been confirmed, the CDC said. Myocarditis, which can have many causes, is generally not as common among younger children. “There’s every reason to be confident that it wouldn’t be a problem in the less-than-5-year-olds who are getting an even smaller dose than the 5-to-11-year-olds,” Offit said. And in the low number of cases reported among children, experts say the vast majority have been mild and patients have recovered quickly. In general, Offit said parents should vaccinate their children against the coronavirus for the same reason they vaccinate them against other diseases — to protect them not only as children but also as they grow older, and to protect those around them. “Knowing that children can suffer from this, knowing that children grow up and that they’re going to be susceptible to this virus,” he said, “we will need a high percentage of population immunity.”

What should I do while waiting for the vaccine?

In the meantime, make sure your child is up to date on all routine vaccinations, experts said. Sean O’Leary, vice chair of the Committee on Infectious Diseases for the American Academy of Pediatrics, said although covid-19 is understandably making parents nervous, “a lot of the diseases that we vaccinate kids for, like measles, are more severe in kids than covid — and we have seen a global dip in those vaccines, and we are very concerned about potential outbreaks of those diseases.” O’Leary said that while parents and guardians are waiting for a vaccine for children younger than 5, they should make sure those children have been vaccinated against these other diseases, including influenza. “Those are things we can prevent,” he said. Carolyn Y. Johnson, Laurie McGinley and Lena H. Sun contributed to this report, which has been updated.

Health

What to know about the coronavirus vaccine for children younger than 5

By Lindsey Bever

Updated June 23, 2022 at 12:20 p.m. EDT|Published January 11, 2022 at 4:42 p.m. EST

(Megan Jelinger for The Washington Post)

Children younger than 5 are now eligible to receive the coronavirus vaccine after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed off on the shots for an additional 19 million children across the United States.

The CDC recommended a three-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on June 18 for children ages 6 months through 4 years as well as a two-dose Moderna vaccine for children ages 6 months through 5 years.

“Together, with science leading the charge, we have taken another important step forward in our nation’s fight against COVID-19,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement at the time. “We know millions of parents and caregivers are eager to get their young children vaccinated, and with today’s decision, they can.”

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