By  Brenda Baletti, Ph.D.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday added the two-shot primary series mRNA COVID-19 vaccine to its routine immunization schedule for children and adults, formalizing the agency’s vaccine advisory committee’s unanimous recommendation made in October 2022.

Although the CDC does not have the authority to set requirements itself, the agency’s immunization schedule provides formal guidance for state and local public health officials who set the rules for which vaccines are required to attend school.

The schedule also is the basis for vaccine recommendations made by most physicians.

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Under the new guidelines, the CDC recommends healthy children 6 months to 11 years old receive a primary series of two doses of the mRNA Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech monovalent COVID-19 vaccine, followed by a…