Covid vaccine booster shots are here for kids ages 12 and up — here's what parents need to know

Covid booster shots are here for children ages 12 and up — just in time for kids to go back to school after the holidays, as omicron surges across the country.

On Wednesday evening, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention authorized booster doses of Pfizer's Covid vaccine for kids ages 12 to 15, following a similar authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration>Why Covid booster shots matter for kids

Boosters significantly bolster your immune system's protection against omicron, in terms of both how likely you are to get sick and how severe your illness could be. Initial research from the United Kingdom last month found that Covid boosters in adults can provide up to 86% protection against severe disease from omicron, and roughly 97% protection against Covid's delta variant.

And each day's tally of new Covid cases includes tens of thousands of pediatric diagnoses, says Dr. Matthew Harris, medical director for Northwell Health's vaccine program and a pediatric emergency doctor at Cohen Children's Medical Center in Queens, New York.

While most of those kids won't require hospitalization, Messina says, the>Why kids need better masks in schools, too

In addition to vaccines and boosters, Dr. Sonja Rasmussen, a pediatrics and epidemiology professor at the University of Florida College of Medicine and College of Public Health, says parents need to get their children better masks.

"[T]hey need N95s, K95s or a surgical mask," Rasmussen says. "Something a step up from those cloth masks that we've been using."

For months, health experts have urged people to swap their cloth masks for well-fitting surgical masks, to better filter out tiny virus particles. That's particularly crucial against omicron, which is roughly twice as contagious as Covid's delta variant.

The CDC currently recommends "universal indoor masking" for all students, teachers, staff and visitors in K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status. Masks are required in some public schools across states like California and New Jersey, while states like Texas and Florida have banned schools from mandating mask-wearing.