HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The Food and Drug Administration is paving the way for children ages 5 to 11 to get a COVID-19 vaccine shot. They cleared the kid-sized doses on Friday and now, it goes to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We know that this is a process and that Burbach had made recommendations and FDA of course, was going to act upon those which they did,” said Dr. Karen Landers with the Alabama Department of Public Health.

The FDA found the benefits of Pfizer’s kid-sized vaccine dose outweigh any risks. Now CDC advisers will recommend who in the age group will need to take it.

Dr. Landers says that discussion will be particularly interesting: “We will be able to listen in to those scientists. This is always where we learn a lot so we do expect some further refinement of the recommendations.”

Nearly 70% of all 5 to 11 year-olds hospitalized for COVID-19 in the U.S. have other serious medical conditions. This is where that refinement will come in.

As far as the shot itself, Dr. Landers says it’s a ten microgram dose.

“I call that a different formulation because it is a smaller dose and the way you have to be able to prepare that dose is different,” she said.

Dr. Landers says the CDC has allowed ADPH and other COVID-19 providers to pre-order the kid-sized vaccine dose, depending on the final recommendations.

If the pediatric vaccine dose is approved, ADPH will be providing it to the public. As of now, they do not have any of it in stock.