Moderna Starts COVID-19 Vaccine Trials For Kids Aged 6 Months To 12 Years
Moderna, the company that was the first in line to develop a vaccine against COVID-19 has now announced that it has begun trials for children from the age of 6 months to 12 years old.
It¡¯s been a year since the world has been battling against the novel coronavirus, and even though we have access to vaccines that can safeguard us against SARS CoV-2, the coronavirus continues to infect thousands of people every day.
Reuters
These vaccines have truly been a godsend. However, these have only been tested on adults. Covid-19 vaccine trials so far didn¡¯t include kids in them to understand the effects and efficacy of the vaccines.
Today, even though kids aren¡¯t the most affected by the novel coronavirus (as in most cases they show no symptoms or very mild symptoms), they can be equally deadly as spreaders, which has resulted in schools being shut down in various regions of the world and studying from home becoming the norm.
Covid-19 vaccine trials for children
However, Moderna, the company that was the first in line to develop a vaccine against COVID-19 has now announced that it has begun trials for children from the age of 6 months to 12 years old.
The announcement was made by CEO Stephane Bancel. He said in a statement, "We are pleased to begin this Phase 2/3 study of mRNA-1273 in healthy children in the US and Canada. This pediatric study will help us assess the potential safety and immunogenicity of our COVID-19 vaccine candidate in this important younger age population."
This study is being conducted in collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). The trial will have two doses of the mRNA-1273 vaccine administered 28 days apart, similar to how it¡¯s administered in adults. The pharmaceutical giant expects to enrol around 6,750 kids.
Reuters
This surprisingly isn¡¯t the only Covid-19 vaccine study surrounding youngsters that Moderna is currently conducting.
In December 2020, it commenced a separate study where it tested the vaccine in adolescents between 12 to 18 years of age. As of now, Moderna¡¯s vaccine has been administered to 17.8 million adults in the US.
