With a series of 15-0 votes, academic physician-advisors to the CDC recommended the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines be added to the pediatric routine childhood vaccine schedule. These votes provided the CDC with advice to make the shots available to low-income children free of charge. Additionally, they are now on the schedule with measles, mumps, rubella, polio, etc., as routine vaccinations that most states will adopt for their public school systems.

In the US, these decisions represent many “firsts”: 

  1. First pandemic illness to be permanently added — what happens when COVID-19 essentially goes away?
  2. First emergency use authorized products to join — what happens if they are not fully FDA approved in the future?
  3. First products added without clarity on the dose, interval, and how to administer?

For example, does an unvaccinated child start with the obsolete Pfizer or Moderna products from two years ago and then two months later get a bivalent booster for a total of three shots in four months? What about a fully vaccinated child — does this mean annual boosters when the theoretical benefit, if any, only last six months?......To Read More....