Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna have begun testing their coronavirus vaccines on children over the age of 12, hoping to have results by the summer, paving the way for teens to be vaccinated in the first phase. .
Depending on how the vaccines work in this age group, the companies will then proceed with testing in children under 12 years of age. So to the question of many parents “when will my child be vaccinated”, the short answer is “not before the end of the summer”, according to the “New York Times”.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) usually takes a few weeks to evaluate the data from a clinical trial and give its approval to the vaccine. Three other companies, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca and Novavax, also plan to try their own vaccines in children, but lag behind Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna. Trials of new drugs and vaccines usually start in adults and then go down to younger ages. Some vaccines, such as pneumococcus and meningococcus, have been tried first in children because they prevent childhood diseases.
Although the vast majority of serious cases and deaths due to Covid-19 are related to old age, all over the world there are cases of children who, when infected with coronavirus, need to be hospitalized or in an ICU. On the other hand, in order to achieve effective collective immunity (“herd”), children will probably need to be vaccinated, if it is required to cover more than 70% of the population with immunity. With some adults reluctant to get vaccinated or unable to get vaccinated due to a health problem, vaccinating children may also be necessary, according to Emily Erbelding, an infectious disease specialist at the US National Institutes of Health.
The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine has been approved for those over 16 years of age and the US company is continuing its testing on 2,259 volunteers aged 12 to 15 years. Adolescents are about twice as likely to be infected with the coronavirus as younger children, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). A Pfizer spokesman said the effects on teens would be known in the summer and that children under the age of 12 would need a new study and possibly a dose adjustment. This study in younger children is expected to begin within a year, after the results are released for children 12-15 years old.
Moderna began testing its vaccine in 12- to 17-year-olds in December and plans to include about 3,000 volunteers, expecting results around the middle of the year, according to a company spokesman. Based on the findings, the American company plans to start after a study in children from six months to 11 years. Babies may have some coronavirus antibodies at birth, which they acquired from mothers who were vaccinated or infected with the virus, but this protection is considered unlikely by scientists to last throughout the first year of life. Due to their relatively weak immune system, babies can be vulnerable to infection if transmission to the community is high. The tests will also assess the safety of the vaccines in children, in order to allay any concerns of the parents.
Given that the risk of Covid-19 infection is lower in children, opinion polls have shown that some parents are skeptical about whether it is urgent to vaccinate their children against coronavirus, which is why, according to scientists, it is important to prove that vaccines are very safe in children.
