WASHINGTON (AP) – The government’s top infectious disease expert said Friday he hopes to see a few children begin being vaccinated for COVID-19 in the next few months. It is a necessary step to ensure widespread immunity to the virus.
Vaccines are not yet approved for children, but testing is already underway for those up to 12 years old.
If these trials are successful, Dr. Anthony Fauci said they will be followed by another round of testing until they are 9 years old.
“We hope that by the end of spring and early summer, we will have children who can be vaccinated,” Fauci said at a White House briefing on the coronavirus.
Fauci was waiting for a time when vaccines would be plentiful. Even older adults have difficulty getting photos right now. As of Thursday, only about 1.3% of Americans had been completely vaccinated with the two required doses of currently available vaccines.
Children make up about a quarter of the population, and for the US to achieve “herd immunity” or widespread resistance, about 70% to 85% of the population must be vaccinated.
“Children tend not to get as seriously ill as adults, but they can still get sick and some have died tragically,” said Dr. Leana Wen, a public health expert and emergency physician who supports Fauci’s goal. . “Children can also be vectors of transmission, and vaccinating children is important, as we strive to obtain the herd’s immunity.”
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has emergency approval for use in people over 16 years of age. The Moderna vaccine is intended for those over 18 years of age.
The Pfizer clinical trial for children aged 12 to 15 is fully enrolled, and your doctor may request emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for children 12 years of age or older in the first half of this year. Moderna’s trial for the age between 12 and 17 is still recruiting.
Because initial tests to validate the safety and efficacy of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines involved tens of thousands of people, age-related testing of children can be done using smaller groups.
“You don’t want to have to … go through an efficiency process, in which you involve tens of thousands of children,” Fauci explained. “What you can do is in a much smaller process, measured in hundreds to thousands … what we call safety and … immunogenicity.” This is a term to determine if the vaccine successfully triggers an immune system response.
After a frustratingly slow start, the US is now administering about 1 million photos a day to adults, although this pace is still seen as insufficient. President Joe Biden talked about 1.5 million photos a day, if possible. His administration set a goal of 100 million photos in its first 100 days.
Two other vaccines from US companies are approaching the stage where the FDA can evaluate them for approval. One from Johnson & Johnson requires only one shot.
Biden also set a goal of reopening most schools by the summer and urged government agencies to work with communities to promote it.
Its legislation on the US rescue plan in Congress calls for $ 50 billion to fund a major extension of the tests, which is seen as necessary for the safe reopening of schools and businesses. This is because robust testing can detect early outbreaks before they spread into a community and trigger shutdowns. Testing in the US has had a chaotic start, and experts say it is still low in many parts of the country.