--- title: Moderna: Vaccine Is Effective In Children 6 Months and Older description: Moderna reports encouraging results of its COVID-19 vaccine for children six months to six years old, and is now seeking FDA authorization. canonical: https://time.com/6159746/moderna-vaccine-children-under-6/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2022-03-23T12:00:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-24T14:02:20.217Z article:section: Health og:title: Moderna: Vaccine Is Effective In Children 6 Months and Older og:description: Moderna reports encouraging results of its COVID-19 vaccine for children six months to six years old, and is now seeking FDA authorization. og:url: https://time.com/6159746/moderna-vaccine-children-under-6/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt85cfd21d721c0a18/698a302247ca38f3133b965e/GettyImages-1332308912.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: COVID-19 Vaccination in Colombia og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Moderna: Vaccine Is Effective In Children 6 Months and Older twitter:description: Moderna reports encouraging results of its COVID-19 vaccine for children six months to six years old, and is now seeking FDA authorization. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt85cfd21d721c0a18/698a302247ca38f3133b965e/GettyImages-1332308912.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Moderna Says Its COVID-19 Vaccine Is Effective For Children As Young as 6 Months Old > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators.  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Mar 23, 2022 12:00 PM UTC  A nurse shows the vial of the Moderna novel Coronavirus vaccine as public transport drivers and people from ages 25 to 30 start their vaccination phase with the Moderna novel COVID-19 vaccine against the Coronavirus disease in Bogota, Colombia on August 2, 2021\. (Photo by:Martin Galindo/Long Visual Press/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) A nurse shows the vial of the Moderna novel Coronavirus vaccine as public transport drivers and people from ages 25 to 30 start their vaccination phase with the Moderna novel COVID-19 vaccine against the Coronavirus disease in Bogota, Colombia on August 2, 2021\. (Photo by:Martin Galindo/Long Visual Press/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) Martin Galindo—Long Visual Press/Universal Image/Getty Images  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Mar 23, 2022 12:00 PM UTC Moderna announced today that its COVID-19 vaccine produces “robust” levels of antibodies among children six months to six years old similar to those [generated by adults vaccinated](https://time.com/5912491/moderna-covid-19-vaccine-effectiveness/) with the shot. The results are part of the company’s KidCOVE study and will be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use authorization in this youngest, and last group of children to be eligible for COVID-19 vaccination, Moderna said in a statement. In the study, nearly 7,000 children six months to six years old were randomly assigned to receive two doses of Moderna’s mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine, or two doses of placebo. The dosage for this age group is one-quarter of that [currently approved for adults](https://time.com/5922752/moderna-covid-19-vaccine-approved-fda-emergency-use/). Children vaccinated with the shot produced antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 at similar levels to those that adults made after being vaccinated at higher doses, likely reflecting children’s more active and efficient immune systems. Those antibodies led to an efficacy of 43.7% in protecting children six months to two years old from getting infected with the [Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus](https://time.com/6141679/omicron-end-covid-19/), and 37.5% among those aged two to six. None of the children in the study who became infected experienced severe disease, were hospitalized, or died. Currently, Moderna’s vaccine is only approved for those over 18 years old, while Pfizer-BioNTech’s is approved for adults and has emergency use authorization for [those between ages five and 18](https://time.com/6110640/fda-panel-recommends-covid-19-vaccine-for-children-5-11-years-old/). But these results could put Moderna ahead of Pfizer-BioNTech in receiving authorization to distribute its vaccine to younger children. In addition to seeking authorization for its vaccine to be used for children between six months and six years of age, Moderna is also asking the FDA to authorize two doses of its mRNA vaccine in children six to 12 years old, based on data provided to the agency the shots are safe and effective in that age group. While Pfizer-BioNTech had [submitted a request](https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-and-biontech-initiate-rolling-submission-emergency) in February for FDA authorization of its vaccine for the youngest age group, the companies and the agency decided to delay reviewing the application until April, when additional data among children given an additional, third dose of the vaccine will be available. The two-dose regimen didn’t prove as efficacious in protecting the youngest children from infection and disease, especially against the Omicron variant, as health officials had hoped. Children under six are the last group to be vaccinated against COVID-19, and ensuring the shots for them are both safe and effective is critical as the [new Omicron subvariant, BA.2](https://time.com/6143069/new-omicron-variant-ba2/), continues to cause more new infections, and virus control measures like [mask-wearing](https://time.com/6145291/end-mandatory-masks-schools/) are being dropped in schools and other public places throughout the U.S. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6159746/moderna-vaccine-children-under-6/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6159746/moderna-vaccine-children-under-6/"},"headline":"Moderna Says Its COVID-19 Vaccine Is Effective For Children As Young as 6 Months Old","datePublished":"2022-03-23T12:00:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T14:02:20.217Z","description":"Moderna reports encouraging results of its COVID-19 vaccine for children six months to six years old, and is now seeking FDA authorization.","url":"https://time.com/6159746/moderna-vaccine-children-under-6/","keywords":["COVID-19","healthscienceclimate"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt85cfd21d721c0a18/698a302247ca38f3133b965e/GettyImages-1332308912.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alice Park","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/alice-park/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt85cfd21d721c0a18/698a302247ca38f3133b965e/GettyImages-1332308912.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"COVID-19 Vaccination in Colombia","caption":"COVID-19 Vaccination in Colombia","creditText":"Martin Galindo—Long Visual Press/Universal Image/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/covid-19/","name":"COVID-19"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/6159746/moderna-vaccine-children-under-6/","name":"Moderna Says Its COVID-19 Vaccine Is Effective For Children As Young as 6 Months Old"}}]}] ```