Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testified during a Senate Senate hearing on Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) at Capitol Hill in Washington, USA.
Kevin Dietsch | Reuters
The United States could begin vaccinating older children against Covid-19 this fall, while middle-aged children could begin shooting early next year, White House Medical Director Anthony Fauci said Wednesday.
“For high school students, it looks like they will be available to get vaccinated in early fall, most likely in the fall,” Fauci told lawmakers during a hearing with the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Fauci said researchers will likely have enough data on immunizations for younger children – up to 12 years old – to start giving them vaccines in the first quarter of 2022.
The Food and Drug Administration has authorized Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines for people 18 years of age and older, while the Pfizer vaccine can be used in people up to 16 years of age.
Drug manufacturers are rapidly testing their coronavirus vaccines in children to determine if they are safe and effective. Both Pfizer and Moderna began testing vaccines in adolescents late last year.
Moderna said Tuesday that it began dosing younger children in a mid-to-late-stage study to determine if its vaccine, mRNA-1273, can be used to immunize children between the ages of six months and 12 years. The study, which will enroll approximately 6,750 children in the United States and Canada, will test the company’s two-dose vaccine given 28 days apart.
However, Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said in January that he did not expect data from children under the age of 12 to be ready before 2022, although he anticipates more information about vaccine performance among the elderly. 12 years and over before September.
“I don’t think the studies will last at all,” Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the FDA’s Vaccine Advisory Committee, told CNBC on Tuesday, “The News with Shepard Smith.”
“I think it’s very likely for children over the age of 12 to have vaccines for them by the summer, and for children who are younger, we may have them by the end of this year, early next year,” Offit said.
A Pfizer spokesman was not immediately available to comment on the company’s progress in testing the vaccine in younger children.