The Food & Drug Administration on Monday announced that it has authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use for adolescents ages 12 to 15.
The FDA’s expansion of the emergency use authorization is "a significant step in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic," said acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock.
"Today’s action allows for a younger population to be protected from COVID-19, bringing us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy and to ending the pandemic. Parents and guardians can rest assured that the agency undertook a rigorous and thorough review of all available data, as we have with all of our COVID-19 vaccine emergency use authorizations."
The FDA said that the two Pfizer-BioNTech doses administered to kids ages 12 to 15 will be the same as the ones administered to adults.
The CDC reported 1.5 million cases of Americans between the ages of 11 and 17 contracting COVID-19 in the previous 14 months, according to the FDA. They said the course of the disease in younger people tends to be milder than in adults.
"Having a vaccine authorized for a younger population is a critical step in continuing to lessen the immense public health burden caused by the COVID-19 pandemic," said Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, in a news release.
"With science guiding our evaluation and decision-making process, the FDA can assure the public and medical community that the available data meet our rigorous standards to support the emergency use of this vaccine in the adolescent population 12 years of age and older."