Vaccinating children under 5 is crucially important in the country’s fight against COVID-19, experts say. Just don’t expect the virus to disappear overnight. Here's what else has to happen before this pandemic is finally in the rearview mirror.
compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That number sinks dramatically among young age groups: As of last week, less than 30% of eligible 5- to 11-year-olds were fully vaccinated against Covid-19 in the U.S.
But there's no guarantee Covid's mutations end with omicron, says Ali Mokdad, chief strategy officer of population health at the University of Washington in Seattle. As long as the virus keeps circulating in some fashion, it can mutate again — and it's impossible to predict the severity of future variants.
The solution could include vaccines that target specific Covid variants. On Tuesday, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory committee is meeting to discuss the approval of such omicron-specific vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna as booster shots this coming fall, potentially as the first in an annual series of custom boosters.
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