The CDC’s advisers were swayed by real-world U.S. data showing that symptomatic COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are between seven and 11 times higher in unvaccinated adolescents than vaccinated ones.
If the CDC agrees, about 5 million of the younger teens, those 12 to 15, would be eligible for a booster right away because they got their last shot at least five months ago.
Children tend to suffer less serious illness from COVID-19 than adults. But child hospitalizations are rising during the omicron wave -- the vast majority of them unvaccinated. The chief safety question for adolescents is a rare side effect called myocarditis, a type of heart inflammation seen mostly in younger men and teen boys who get either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. The vast majority of cases are mild — far milder than the heart inflammation COVID-19 can cause — and they seem to peak in older teens, those 16 and 17.
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