Currently, the only people in the United States who are not eligible to get vaccinated for Covid-19 are the youngest members of the population. There is not an approved vaccine for babies, toddler and preschoolers who have yet to celebrate their 5th birthday; however, it looks like that could change in the near future.

Pfizer and Moderna have both been testing vaccines for babies and little kids. Moderna was first to submit data to the FDA for a vaccine for the 6 month to age 5 age group. Moderna claims this vaccine is both safe and effective.

Like the vaccine for older members of the population, the Moderna vaccine also consist of two doses; however, Pfizer was unable to produce a vaccine for young children that was effective with just two doses.

The Pfizer vaccine for ages 6 months to age 5 would consist of 3 doses of the vaccine. Each dose would be one tenth the size of an adult vaccine. Pfizer claims this three-dose regimen is 80% effective at preventing Covid-19.

In order to test the effectiveness of 2 doses of the vaccine versus 3 doses of the vaccine, 1,600 babies and toddlers were given a third dose during the height of the omicron winter surge. According to BioNTech’s CEO, Dr. Ugur Sahin, “The study suggests that a low, 3-microgram dose of our vaccine, carefully selected based on tolerability data, provides young children with a high level of protection against the recent COVID-19 strains.”

Watch the video below to learn more about the Pfizer vaccine for babies and toddlers and when parents might be able to get their children under 5 vaccinated for Covid-19.

While some parents are eager to get their children under age 5 vaccinated, it is unclear how many families plan to run out and get their toddlers and babies vaccinated when the vaccine first becomes available. Currently, only approximately 30% of children between the ages of 5 and 11 have received the Covid-19 vaccine.

If you have children under the age of 5, do you plan to get them vaccinated as soon as the vaccine becomes available? Do you think the vaccine will be approved this summer?