Covid19 – EU approves Moderna for adolescents of 12-17 years of age
Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine could become the second shot okayed for adolescent use in the European Union after regulators on Friday recommended approving it for 12 to 17-year-olds.
Use of the vaccine, Spikevax, will be the same in adolescents as in people over 18, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said, adding the shot produced a comparable antibody response to that seen in 18 to 25-year-olds.
Vaccinating children has been considered important for reaching herd immunity and in light of the highly contagious Delta variant. Moderna in May said its vaccine was found to be safe and effective in teenagers.
The vaccine will be given in two injections, each four weeks apart. The decision by the Amsterdam-based agency follows the approval of the first vaccine for European youngsters, by Pfizer/BioNTech in May.
The European Medicines Agency has warned of a possible “causal relationship” between the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine and Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare nerve-degenerating disease. The disorder has been reported by 8.1 per 1 million recipients of the J&J shot as opposed to 1.1 per million recipients of mRNA vaccines produced by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech. On Thursday, the CDC weighed in as well, saying the benefits of the J&J shot far outweigh the risks.
