The 9-year-old twins did not flinch, as each received test doses of the COVID-19 Pfizer vaccine – and then a shiny bandage to cover the spot.
“The brilliance makes everything better,” Marisol Gerardo said as she walked out of an exam table at Duke University to make room for her sister Alejandra.
Researchers in the US and abroad are beginning to test younger and younger children to make sure COVID-19 vaccines are safe and work for all ages. The first photos are addressed to adults who are most at risk of coronavirus, but to end the pandemic will also need to vaccinate children.
“Children should be shot,” Marisol told the Associated Press this week after the sisters participated in the new Pfizer study of children under 12. “To make everything a little more normal.” She is looking forward to having bedrooms with her friends again.
To date, in the US, the testing of adolescents is the most remote: Pfizer and Moderna expect to release results soon showing how two doses of vaccines were given to 12 and more. Pfizer is currently licensed for use from the age of 16; Modern is for people over 18 years old.
But younger children may need different doses for teenagers and adults. Moderna recently began a study similar to Pfizer’s new study, as both companies track the correct dose of each stroke for each age group, while working to vaccinate babies up to 6 months old.
Last month, in the UK, AstraZeneca started a study of the vaccine among young people aged 6 to 17. Johnson & Johnson is planning its own pediatric studies. In China, too, Sinovac recently announced that it has provided preliminary data to Chinese regulators showing that its vaccine is safe for children up to 3 years old.
Obtaining this data, for all vaccines launched, is essential because countries need to vaccinate children to obtain herd immunity, said Dr. Emmanuel “Chip” Walter, a pediatrics and vaccine specialist who helps lead the Pfizer study.
Most COVID-19 vaccines used worldwide have been studied for the first time in tens of thousands of adults. Studies in children will not have to be nearly as large: researchers have safety information from these studies and subsequent vaccinations of millions of adults.
And because children’s infection rates are so low – they account for about 13% of documented COVID-19 cases in the US – the main study of pediatric studies is not to count the number of diseases. Instead, researchers are measuring whether vaccines revitalize young people’s immune systems as they do adults – suggesting that they will provide similar protection.
Proof of this is important because while children are much less likely than adults to become seriously ill, at least 268 have died from COVID-19 in the United States alone and more than 13,500 have been hospitalized, according to an American Academy report. pediatric. That means more than dying of the flu in an average year. In addition, a small number have developed a serious inflammatory condition related to coronavirus.
In addition to their own health risks, there are still questions about how easily children can transmit the virus, which has complicated efforts to reopen schools.
Earlier this month, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading infectious disease expert in the United States, told Congress that high school students were expected to begin vaccination in the fall. Elementary students, he said, may not be eligible until early 2022.
In North Carolina, Marisol and Alejandra made their own choice to volunteer after their parents explained the opportunity, said their mother, Dr. Susanna Naggie, an infectious disease specialist at Duke. Long before the pandemic, she and her husband, emergency physician Dr. Charles Gerardo, regularly discussed their own research projects with the girls.
In the first phase of the Pfizer study, a small number of children receive different doses of the vaccine, with scientists winning the best dose to be tested in several thousand children in the next phase.
“We really trust the research process and understand that they can get a dose that doesn’t work at all, but can have side effects,” Naggie said, describing the decision-making process parents face when enrolling their children.
But 9-year-olds have a certain understanding of the devastation of the pandemic, and “it’s nice to participate in something that’s not just about you, it’s about learning,” Naggie added. “They worry about others and I think this is something that you really know has caught their eye.”
For Marisol, the only part that was “a little nervous and scary” was to give a blood sample first.
Vaccination itself was “very easy. If you stay calm while shooting, it will be simple, “she said.
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The Associated Press Department of Health and Science receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. AP is solely responsible for all content.