UK health regulator authorizes Moderna COVID vaccine for infants as young as 6 months

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - Britain’s health regulator on Tuesday authorized the use of a Moderna coronavirus vaccine for infants and children aged six months to five years.

In a statement, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) said that the Spikevax COVID vaccine has met its required safety, quality and effectiveness standards.

It said that before the decision, the agency reviewed data from an ongoing clinical trial involving 6,388 children aged 6 months to 5 years and added that "the common side effects (reactogenicity) were in-keeping with what can be anticipated from a vaccine in this age group."

"For this age group, the vaccine is given as a primary series of two 25-microgram injections in the upper arm or in the thigh, approximately one month apart," added MHRA.

This is the second COVID-19 vaccine to be authorized in this age group, after the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine Comirnaty which was authorized in the UK for infants and children aged 6 months to 4 years in December 2022.

Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that COVID-19 no longer represents a "global health emergency."