Pfizer submits application for authorization for COVID-19 booster shots in children five to 11

Pfizer, the leading manufacturer of COVID-19 vaccines in America, has submitted a bid to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to begin distributing booster shots for children aged five to 11. 

The New York City-based company made the announcement Tuesday afternoon, also revealing results of its Phase 2/3 clinical trials which raised Covid antibody levels in the age group 36-fold without any serious complications.

If approved, it would be the first booster dose available to the age group, as the Pfizer-BioNTech shot is the only one available to Americans under the age of 18.

Many experts disagree that the shots are needed in children of this age, though, with some pointing to the lasting immunity the shots have against serious infection – combined with the limited risk children face from the virus anyways.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control Prevention (CDC), revealed that around 75 percent of U.S. children and teens had been infected with Covid, with a lowly 1,001 deaths recorded among the age group.