major developments indicating we may closer to vaccinating younger kids against covid. the fda on friday explaining the benefits of the pfizer vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 outweigh the risks. the pfizer study found a 90% efficacy rate in preventing symptomatic cases. they will discuss emergency authorization for lower doses of pfizer for children. also this week, the cdc signing off on the fda s approval for moderna and johnson & johnson boosters. all johnson & johnson recipients over 18 years old will be eligible for a booster shot at least two months after their first shot. the moderna boosters are recommended at least six months after receiving their last vaccine for anyone 65 and older or anyone over 18 at high risk because of their job or medical conditions. boosters for five years were approved last month and a recent study by pfizer found that taking their booster restored
full protection with a 95.6 efficacy rate. the delta strain was the most prominent among the 10,000 people in the study. the fda s also allowing a mix-and-match approach for americans to get a booster from a different covid vaccine than they originally received. here s the cdc director on how that works. the vast majority of people will probably select the one that they originally received and did really well with, but there may be some people who would prefer a different vaccine or if you go into a pharmacy and they don t have the vaccine that you originally got, it really is fine to get a different vaccine. with me now, msnbc medical contributor dr. kavita patel. she is also the former director of policy for the obama administration. dr. patel, i got to say, you and i have weathered a lot of terrible news to that, and it is so great to be with you talking about a positive development. so how soon can we expect covid vaccines to be available for kids 5 to 11? yeah, alicia, it s
over time among 5- to 11-year-olds who got the pfizer product compare to a placebo. it shows if you were in the group that got the pfizer vaccine, over time, and this is during the delta wave, only three kids actually got a covid-19 infection. with the vaccine arm, 17 kids do. that s how they calculate that efficacy rate. over time, we expect that to be more. this could be a real game changer if parents vaccinate their kids. i hope this will bring solace and hope to parent who is want safety for their kids, especially in schools. a lot of parents get flu shots for their kids with maybe 50% efficacy against the flu? this is 97% effective in kids 5 to 11. doctor, let s hope folks listen to you. thank you. the justice department is considering criminal contempt charges for steve bannon. what s next for the former trump
effective in protecting kids ages 5 to 11. clinical trials showed an efficacy rate of 90%, that s pretty good. an fda panel will consider pfizer s request for approval for that age group next week. as of today, booster shots are available to millions more americans. the cdc officially green lit the moderna and johnson & johnson shots yesterday along with mixing and matching of boosters. here is what the director of the cdc said earlier on today. the vast majority of people will probably select the one that they originally received and did really well with. but there may be some people who would prefer a different vaccine or if you go into a pharmacy and they don t have the vaccine that you originally got, it really is fine to get a different vaccine. and nbc news correspondent miguel almaguer has more. reporter: yasmin, with the cdc s director s signoff overnight, those booster shots can start going into arms immediately. well over 30 million americans now qualify for a booster
vaccination, i want to ask about covid shots in kids. pfizer reported data today showing that the covid vaccine had a 90 .7% efficacy rate in preventing symptomatic covid-19 among kids ages 5 to 11. what are you going to watch for as the fda starts to pick apart the data? the most important thing i think are going to be some of the safety signals. we ve talked about inflammation of the heart. we see that in about one in 15,000 cases. particularly in younger adults of certain age. we re going to want to look for the rates in children. not as common in children. it s something parents are going to likely consider. side effects, and number two, how can we judge relatively speaking, how many kids need to get vaccinated to prevent one hospitalization? symptomatic covid is important. those are the conversations parents are going to be asking. they re also going to ask if they should wait. lots of parents are asking