Bivalent COVID Vaccine Now Available To 5- To 11-Year Olds [POLL]

NEW YORK — COVID-19 is still around, even though fewer and fewer people are wearing masks and distancing. Also, some experts say the fall and winter could bring a new wave of the virus.

On Wednesday, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced that another younger age group was made eligible to receive the bivalent booster shots to protect against COVID-19.

Children who are between 5 and 11 years old were recently approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration to get the bivalent shot.

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Hochul said providing the bivalent booster to even more children would expand protection against the Omicron variants.

She continues to urge New Yorkers to get the bivalent COVID-19 vaccine boosters as some medical experts are saying that the U.S. could be heading into a fall COVID resurgence.

Andrea Garcia, JD, MPH, the American Medical Association’s vice president of science, medicine and public health, said the United Kingdom is heading into a fall COVID wave, and it follows that the U.S. could be next.

She said the next wave could be driven by new and “highly immune-evasive strains” of the virus, which seem to be subvariants of Omicron.

Garcia also said that the updated boosters aren’t as well known to the public as the previous COVID shots, with nearly half of adults hearing little to nothing about them. The exception is people 65 and older who are the most knowledgeable about what vaccines are available and are the most vaccinated.

Now it’s your turn to weigh in on the issue. Vote in our unscientific poll and tell us what you think in the comments.