Kids five to 11-years-old in Greene County are unable to get a booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine for now.
Wednesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted emergency authorization of the updated mRNA boosters for kids five and older. That came a month after approval and distribution of the updated booster for those 12 and older.
The Springfield-Greene County Health Department said in a statement that, due to the emergency authorization, existing vaccines are no longer authorized as booster doses for children five to 11.
Once the updated boosters from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna have received authorization from the Center for Disease Control and the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, the health department can begin distributing them.
Local public health officials said the approval process "is expected to move quickly," but they can’t say yet when the health department will begin distributing the updated boosters to kids five and up.
Once the receive approval, the updated Moderna booster dose will be available for children six and up, and the new Pfizer-BioNTech booster dose will be available for those five years and older, according to the health department. The booster doses should be given at least two months after the most recent dose and are designed to protect against the original COVID-19 strain and the omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, the health department said.