Pfizer-BioNTech Have Started Testing Their COVID-19 Vaccine in Children Under 12

Alejandra and Marisol Gerardo are nine years old but already making a little bit of history. The twin sisters are among the first young children to get vaccinated with a COVID-19 shot in Pfizer-BioNTech’s study of its vaccine in kids under age 12. Alejandra and Marisol had their blood drawn in the morning on March 24, then got their first dose of the two-dose vaccine later that afternoon at Duke University Medical Center, one of four study sites in the U.S. for the trial. “Their primary concern was, ‘is it going to hurt,’” says their father, Dr. Charles Gerardo, chief of emergency medicine at Duke University School of Medicine. “They’re not too worried about the long term side effects; they’re looking at the moment, not the future.” Testing the vaccine in younger children will answer critical questions about how much immunity the shots can provide, and potentially give parents and education officials more confidence in re-opening schools. While it appears that younger children don’t get as sick with COVID-19 as older teens and adults do, how these children’s immune systems respond to the virus, and to the vaccine, remains a black box. The trial will also help provide some clarity on those questions. Pfizer-BioNTech says it will test the same vaccine that is currently authorized for emergency use in the U.S. for those 16 years and older, but this time in children aged six months to 11 years. The company is curr...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news