FDA Panel Approves COVID-19 Shot For Kids Under 5: What It Means In WI

MILWAUKEE, WI — Children under five may soon be able to get their COVID-19 vaccination while nearly all Wisconsin residents have been eligible for the shot for some time now. Vaccine advisers at the Food and Drug Administration voted on Wednesday to approve the Moderna vaccine for children under five.

The panel argued that the protection the Moderna shots provide far outweighed any potential health risks for children as it voted unanimously in favor of approval, the Associated Press reported. Health advisers are set to decide on Pfizer's three-dose pediatric series shortly.

The Moderna series is considered effective for children ages 6 months to 5 years, while Pfizer is seeking approval for children ages 6 months to 4 years.

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However, the move doesn't mean younger Wisconsinites can get their vaccine doses just yet. The FDA still needs to grant emergency use authorization, which it is expected to do before week's end. A Centers for Disease Control Prevention advisory panel will also vote Friday and Saturday on whether to endorse the shots, NBC News reported.

Approving the COVID-19 vaccine for children under 5 makes an estimated 18 million American toddlers eligible for vaccination. While young children are usually at lower risk for serious COVID-related health complications than older adult so they can act as transmission vectors, and in rare cases can still get severely ill or even die. 442 children under the age of 4 have died due to the pandemic, the FDA said.

Inoculating young children should help drive down COVID-19 case rates, health experts said. In Wisconsin, cases have begun to decline after an uptick that lasted several months.

Over 9 million COVID-19 vaccines have been administered inside Wisconsin and 64.5 percent of the total population has taken at least one vaccine dose, the Wisconsin Department of Health Service's vaccine data dashboard showed.

Reporting from Charles Woodman, Patch Staff, and the Associated Press was used in this article.