U.S. health officials may authorize Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children under five by the end of February, according to The Washington Post.

Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for children under 5 could be available by the end of February, people with knowledge say https://t.co/Qw0NPlWO2A

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 1, 2022

Regulators have developed a plan to approve a two-shot regiment based on the results of existing clinical trials, reports the outlet, but health experts anticipate that a third dose will be needed.

That’s because Pfizer found that a two-shot regiment – which contains just one-tenth of the vaccine given to adults – is safe for children but unable to produce a robust immune response in two-, three, and four-year olds.

Unfortunately, data on a three-shot regiment for children won’t be available until the end of March. Therefore, Pfizer will likely seek regulatory approval for the two-shot regiment as soon as this week and then submit additional data on the third shot when its available.

This approach will potentially allow the nation to begin the process of inoculating children before the final three-shot plan receives complete authorization, which could take months.

The Post reports:

“We know that two doses isn’t enough, and we get that,” said one of the people familiar with the situation. “The idea is, let’s go ahead and start the review of two doses. If the data holds up in the submission, you could start kids on their primary baseline months earlier than if you don’t do anything until the third-dose data comes in.”

I post this regularly, and many express surprise.

This is the current childhood immunization schedule. Many childhood vaccines are three+ doses, sometimes a booster.

This is one reason why, unlike earlier centuries, we don't have cemeteries full of children. We've forgotten. pic.twitter.com/H01WqNg7uj

— zeynep tufekci (@zeynep) January 27, 2022

“People familiar with the updated two-dose data say the vaccine has a good safety profile in young children and showed an ability to prevent a significant number of covid-19 cases,” The Post writes.

The New York Times adds:

As the Omicron variant has swarmed the country, there has been a sharp increase in pediatric cases of the virus, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, which gathers state-level data. Even though young children tend to do well combating the virus, some can get very ill. Federal officials were anxious to begin a vaccination program for the youngest children because the studies showed there were no safety concerns with two doses.