The United States gives the final endorsement of the booster doses for children under 16 and 17 years old

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention USA (CDC, in English) gave this Thursday the final endorsement of the booster doses of the vaccine against COVID-19 from Pfizer for 16-17 year olds.

Authorization occurs after EE.UU. Urge all adults to get a booster dose of the new variant of COVID-19, called omicron.

“Although we do not have all the answers on the omicron variant, initial data suggests that booster doses of covid-19 help expand and strengthen protection against omicron and other variants.”The CDC director said in a statement, Rochelle Walensky.

Walensky’s final endorsement came hours after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave an emergency authorization for minors 16 and 17 to get the booster dose six months after receiving the second injection. of Pfizer whey.

On Wednesday, the results of studies of Pfizer and BioNTech showing that booster doses could help activate the immune system against omicron, first detected in South Africa.

So far, about 200 million people have been fully vaccinated in USAThat is, they have received either the two doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, or an injection of the Johnson & Johnson preparation, which represents 60.4% of the country’s population, according to the CDC.

According to these data, 48.8 million (24.4% of the population) have received a booster dose.

The United States is the country hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic with almost 800,000 deaths and 45.5 million infections since March 2020, indicates the Johns Hopkins University count.