Moderna requests emergency authorization of its vaccine for kids 5 and younger

Parents of young children could soon receive good news after Moderna asked the FDA for emergency authorization of its COVID vaccine for children five years old and younger this morning.

The five and younger age group is the last in the United States not yet eligible for a coronavirus vaccination, which has lead to high anxiety among parents. 

The FDA had previously delayed its decision on vaccines for children in February, citing the need to study a potential third dose.

If Moderna's authorization request is approved, kids in that age group would receive a two dose regimen, which the vaccine maker said was 37 percent effective at preventing infections in 2- to 5-year-olds and 51 percent effective in children ages 6 months to 23 months. 

The news comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced earlier this week that two thirds of children in the US 11 and younger have already been infected with the virus.

“In this case the benefit is very, very small, but the risk from the vaccine is also very, very small. So it becomes more about how does a parent feel about it,” Dr. H. Cody Meissner, chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Disease at Tufts University School of Medicine, said.