Third Dose of COVID-19 Vaccine Seems Safe for Young Children

MONDAY, June 12, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- A third dose of COVID-19 vaccine seems safe for children aged 6 months to 5 years, with no new safety concerns reported, according to research published in the June 9 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Anne M. Hause, Ph.D., from the CDC COVID-19 Emergency Response Team, and colleagues characterized the safety of a third COVID-19 vaccine dose among children aged 6 months to 5 years by reviewing adverse events and health surveys reported to v-safe and the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).

Approximately 495,576 children aged 6 months to 4 years received a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 63,919 aged 6 months to 5 years received a third dose of the Moderna vaccine during June 17, 2022, to May 7, 2023. The researchers found that a third COVID-19 vaccination was recorded for 2,969 children in v-safe; 37.7 percent had no reported reactions, and most reactions reported were mild and transient. A total of 536 reports were received by the VAERS after a third dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine; 98.5 percent were nonserious and 78.4 percent were classified as a vaccination error. There were no reports of new safety concerns.

"mRNA COVID-19 vaccination provides protection against symptomatic severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 infection for at least four months after vaccination among children aged 3 to 5 years," the authors write. "CDC and FDA will continue to monitor vaccine safety and will provide updates to help guide COVID-19 vaccination recommendations."

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