On Monday, Pfizer and BioNTech announced that they have submitted an application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use authorization of their unpopular bivalent COVID-19 vaccine for children under 5 years old.
Pfizer has already had its original vaccine approved for children aged 6 months to four years old. Children have been instructed to receive three very small doses of the shot for their primary vaccination. Now, despite COVID posing a very minor risk to children under 5, Pfizer wants them to start receiving their new bivalent shot as part of their initial round of vaccines.
Pfizer has explained that children would receive two doses of the original vaccine, followed by a third shot of the bivalent vaccine.
The new bivalent shot is supposed to protect against COVID-19 and its omicron variant. The combination shot contains half of the original vaccine and half of a tweaked version that matches the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron strains that have been dominant across the country.
In a press release from Pfizer about their intent to get this vaccine approved for by the FDA for emergency use authorization in children under 5, they say, “With the high level of respiratory illnesses currently circulating among children under 5 years of age, updated COVID-19 vaccines may help prevent severe illness and hospitalization.”
However, the U.S. population is starting to break free of the irrational COVID-19 fears and people are beginning to return to their normal, pre-COVID lifestyles. Since the bivalent shot was introduced in August, only 40 million, or 13% of, Americans have received the new vaccination, according to CDC data.
On top of this, many parents have chosen not to get their young children vaccinated. About 2% of kids under 2 have gotten a vaccine, and about 4% of kids aged 2 to 4 years old.
People are clearly getting tired of the never-ending cycle of COVID vaccines being pushed on them by the federal government after seeing for themselves how ineffective the vaccines really were. Although the bivalent shot is being promoted as more effective in protecting against COVID-19 symptoms, people really don’t seem to care.
However, Pfizer won’t stop trying to get their product out to as many people as possible who are still naive enough to believe that there is a point to getting a COVID shot.
