A child receiving a vaccine.Photo: Getty
A COVID-19 vaccine could soon be available for children as young as 6 months old.
Pfizer and Moderna have bothbegun vaccine trialson the youngest age group yet, with parental consent. Dr. Steve Plimpton, the principal investigator for Moderna’s trial in children, told ABC News that their main concern is that kids can unknowingly infect others.
“We’re also going to be protecting those around those children, the teachers, the parents at home, the grandparents,” Dr. Plimpton said. “So that’s the unspoken benefit of this study.”
In the phase one trial for Pfizer, kids will receive their second dose 21 days after their first. For Moderna, it will be 28 days later. This is referred to as a “dosing” trial, allowing researchers to determine how much vaccine children can tolerate and how to protect them.
The second phase will involve splitting subjects into a placebo and a treatment group. “We’ll follow these children out for a year to determine how they’ve done with it,” Dr. Plimpton added of the Moderna trial.
“We are proud to start this much needed study for children and families eagerly awaiting a possible vaccine option,” they added. “We anticipate early safety results from this study could be available in the second half of 2021.”
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“If you project realistically when we will be able to get enough data to be able to say that elementary school children will be able to be vaccinated,” Dr. Anthony Fauci said onNBC’sMeet the Pressin February. “I would think that would be, at the earliest, the end of the year, and very likely the first quarter of 2022.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci.Susan Walsh/AP/Bloomberg via Getty
Just last week, President Joe Bidenreached his goalof having 200 million vaccinations administered in his first 100 days in office, aftersurpassing the original goalof 100 million early. The milestone came shortly after all U.S. adultsbecame eligibleto receive the COVID vaccine.
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source: people.com
