When will COVID vaccines be available for kids under 5? FDA could authorize Pfizer, Moderna together

CHICAGO (WLS) -- With summer around the corner, doctors are getting more and more questions from anxious parents who hope to get their young kids vaccinated before vacations and summer camps.

"There is a lot of different reasons to try to escalate the urgency of getting a vaccine authorized in younger kids," said Dr. Bill Muller, with Lurie Children's Hospital Infectious Diseases.

But that sense of urgency took a hit this week. Dr. Anthony Fauci said there is a possibility the Food and Drug Administration may review both Moderna and Pfizer vaccines for kids under 5 at the same time, possibly in June.

However, Moderna may be ready to apply for emergency use by the end of April.

"What the FDA wants to do is get it so we don't confuse people to say this is the dose, this is the dose regiment for children within that age group," Fauci said.

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Moderna is a two-dose regiment, while Pfizer will take three doses.

"I think what Dr. Fauci said is, there may be some confusion with different authorizations at different times for vaccines directed at same disease, " Muller said, "but I don't know if that was confusing when it was authorized for adults."

Muller conducted the Moderna trials for kids under 5 at Lurie Children's Hospital. He said if Moderna data is ready to be reviewed, the FDA should do it as soon as possible, so kids can be fully vaccinated for the summer. He believes the FDA should let parents and their physicians sort out the confusion.

"There's going to be differences that parents and physicians will understand and parents can talk to their physicians about what is best for their children," Muller said.

If both vaccines are reviewed at the same time in June, younger kids will not be considered fully vaccinated - meaning they received two or three doses - until the end of the summer, or longer.