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Vaccination of children over the age of 12 is ongoing all over the world. Children aged 12 to 15 are the youngest for whom the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has approved the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to date. Elders also get vaccinated. Why is there still no vaccine for younger children? Pfizer scientists and doctors explain.
- Vaccinations are underway for children over 12 years of age
- Scientists are intensively researching Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in younger age groups
- Doctors emphasize that it should not be expected in the fall, because the tests take time
- More information can be found on the Onet homepage
Polish virologists predict that the fourth wave of the pandemic will appear in August, and the eastern territories of Poland will be particularly at risk. Experts are wondering what the new school year will look like in Poland and other parts of the world – children in the USA will return to their school desks in a few weeks.
Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna are conducting intensive clinical trials to see how coronavirus vaccines work in children under the age of 12. They are looking for answers to the questions of whether they are safe and what the appropriate dose should be.
COVID-19 in children. Children are ill now more seriously than in winter
Parents of children in the United States who go to school earlier than in other countries are eagerly awaiting information. The more so as almost all American states have an upward trend in COVID-19 cases in children. Doctors also report a more severe course of the disease in relation to the cases they treated in winter. It has to do with the Delta mutation.
When will we vaccinate children under 12?
“I understand parents’ concern for their children to be vaccinated, but we need to make sure it is safe,” said Dr. Chip Walter, a pediatrician at Duke University in North Carolina and an expert on Pfizer research, in an interview with CNN.
More than 4600 children in three age groups were enrolled in the Pfizer vaccine study: children 5 to 11 years of age, children 2 to 5 years of age, and children 6 months to 2 years of age. According to CNN, data for children 5 to 11 years of age may appear in September. The results of the research for younger children are to be available a bit later.
About 6700 children aged 6 months through 11 years of age were enrolled in the vaccine study by Moderna. CNN reports that the company has so far declined to provide a timetable for potential research results.
Vaccinations against COVID-19 in children. Doctors are not expecting a vaccine this fall
“Fall … I’d be surprised if they were so soon, although it’s possible,” says Dr. Peter Hotez, a vaccinologist at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas. – I cannot imagine that we could even consider vaccinations until the end of the 2021 calendar year. – adds Dr. Buddy Creech, pediatrician and infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, one of Moderna’s principal investigators of the COVID-19 pediatric vaccine.
– Is there a big difference between an 11-year-old and a 12-year-old? Probably not. But you had to set a line somewhere, explains Dr. Creech. The most important, in his opinion, is the fact that “children are not little adults”. – It takes time to find the right dose for young children. Young children may need different doses, they may need a different number of doses, adds the scientist.
As the doctor explains, if we give too little dose, the child may not develop a sufficient immune response to the coronavirus. The vaccine can cause side effects with little or no benefit. If we give a child too much, the risk tilts in the opposite direction.
When asked why, after a year and a half of the pandemic, there is still no vaccine for children, doctors reply that testing vaccines in adults first is the most common way to evaluate them. – We’re going down the age ladder. You can’t do too many attempts at once, says William Schaffner, professor in the Department of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University in Nashville and vaccination adviser at the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The doctor also adds that the pace of research is right. There are many parents who are very wary of these vaccines and want to be sure that they are actually safe and effective.
Experts also stress that vaccine manufacturers need to make sure that the vaccine does not cause the serious COVID-related disease that sometimes occurs in children after being infected. Multiple systemic inflammatory syndrome in children (PIMS) has in very rare cases led to neurological abnormalities and even death.
COVID-19 and the risk to children
American doctors pay attention to one more aspect. Children suffer from COVID-19 much less often than adults, are hospitalized less often, and do not die from the coronavirus. But the virus causes long-term side effects that other diseases like chickenpox and measles do not. The so-called long covid can also last for months in children.
Do you want to test your COVID-19 immunity after vaccination? Have you been infected and want to check your antibody levels? See the COVID-19 immunity test package, which you will perform at Diagnostics network points.
See also:
- Virologist: Fourth Wave Mid-August. It will hit eastern Poland
- Adults vaccinated against COVID-19 and the virus is looking for new ‘hosts’. Children at greater risk
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