Those ages 5 to 11 will get just a third of the dose given to teens and adults.
A study found kid-size doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were 91% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19.
The FDA assessed the safety of the kid-size doses in 3,100 vaccinated youngsters.
Very rarely, teens and young adults given the Pfizer vaccine or a similar one made by Moderna experience a serious side effect, heart inflammation, or what doctors call myocarditis.
To put the risk in context, COVID-19 also causes heart inflammation, often a more severe kind, said Emory University pediatric cardiologist Dr.
Before the pandemic, doctors regularly diagnosed heart inflammation caused by bacterial or viral infections or medications, again mostly in teen boys and young men.