The nine-year-old couple did not stretch as each received test doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine – followed by a spicy bandage to cover the spot.
“Sparkles makes everything better,” said Marisol Gerardo as she stopped a test board at Duke University to make room for her sister Alejandra.
Researchers in the United States 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 shots go to adults who are most at risk from coronavirus, but ending the pandemic will also require vaccinating children.
“Children should get the bullet,” Marisol told The Associated Press this week after the sisters took part in a new Pfizer study on children under 12. ” more usual. ” She is looking forward to when she will have the opportunity to sleep again with friends.
So far in the U.S., teen testing is at the forefront: Pfizer and Moderna plan to release results soon showing how two doses of their vaccines in the population 12 and older. Pfizer is currently authorized for use starting at age 16; Moderna is for people 18 and older.
But younger children may need different doses than teenagers and adults. Moderna recently began a similar study to Pfizer ‘s new test, as both companies hunt for the right dose of each pill for all age groups as they work towards vaccinating babies as young as six months old. eventually.
Last month in the United Kingdom, AstraZeneca began a study of the vaccine among children aged six to 17 years. Johnson & Johnson designs his own pediatric studies. And in China, Sinovac recently announced that they have submitted preliminary data to Chinese regulators showing that its vaccine is safe in children as young as three.
Obtaining this data is crucial for the introduction of all vaccines as countries need to vaccinate children in order to achieve herd immunity, Dr Emmanuel “Chip” Walter, Duke’s pediatrician -near, which helps manage Pfizer analysis.
Most COVID-19 vaccines in use worldwide were first studied in tens of thousands of adults. Studies in children need to be almost as large: Researchers have safety information from these studies and vaccines of millions of adults afterwards.
And because child infection rates are so low – they make up about 13 percent of COVID-19 cases recorded in the U.S. – pediatric studies are not the main focus of counting disease numbers. Instead, researchers are measuring whether the vaccines rejuvenate juvenile immune systems as they do for adults’ – suggesting that they provide similar protection.
Children with a face mask to prevent the spread of coronavirus at an outdoor ice skating rink in Beijing on January 23 [File: Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo]
Proof of this is important because, although children are far more likely than adults to become seriously ill, at least 268 children have died from COVID-19 in the US alone and more than 13,500 have died. be in the hospital, according to a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics. That’s more than flu deaths in an average year. In addition, a small number have developed a severe inflammatory condition associated with the coronavirus.
In addition to their own health risks, there are still questions about how easily children can spread the virus, something that has led to complex efforts to reopen schools.
Earlier this month, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading U.S. infectious disease expert, told Congress that he expected high school students to start receiving the vaccine near the end of the year. The basic students, he said, may not be eligible until early 2022.
In North Carolina, Marisol and Alejandra made their own choice for volunteering after the parents explained the opportunity, said their mother, Dr. Susanna Naggie, a Duke infectious disease specialist. Long before the disease, she and her husband, emergency physician Dr. Charles Gerardo, regularly discussed their own research projects with the girls.
In the first phase of a Pfizer study, a small number of children receive different doses of vaccine while scientists prescribe the optimal dosage for a test in several thousand children in the next phase.
“We have great confidence in the research process and understand that they will be given a dose that will not work at all but may have side effects,” said Naggie, commenting on the decision. which is before parents in signing their children.
But nine-year-olds have some understanding of the devastation of pandemic and “it’s great to be involved in something that is not just about you but about learning,” said Naggie. “They care about other people and I think this is something that really hit them home. ”
For Marisol, the only part that was “something weird and scary” was giving a blood sample first.
The vaccination itself was “very easy. If you just sit through the picture, it’s going to be simple, ”she said.