Pfizer Has Moved To The Next Big Step In Vaccine Trials

While recent COVID-19 vaccine trials have shown promising results on adults, testing on children is just getting started.

For top candidates like Pfizer and Moderna, the next big step will be clinical testing on children. The Cincinnati Children’s Hospital became one of the first sites to begin testing on adolescents after the Pfizer vaccine proved to be about 95% effective in adults.

In the past couple of months, the children’s clinic has been one of several testing sites working on COVID-19 vaccine trials on younger candidates. So far results have been successful, signaling progression to even younger age groups.

From Fox News:

“What we’ve seen so far is that safety has been very similar to the adults,” Dr. Robert Frenck told FOX Business. “We are seeing that some people are having aches and pains but nothing has been serious or caused a child to miss a day of school. We are very excited about that, and it really gives us heart that we will be able to move down further in age and actually may even need to go down as young as infants eventually to try to really stop this whole outbreak.”

Around 400 children, ages 16 and 17, have enrolled in the study, which administers two doses of Pfizer’s experimental vaccine, in addition to about 100 children in the 12 to 15 age group. After the safety review confirms that testing can continue, the clinic will aim to enroll up to 2,600 between the ages of 12 to 18 nationwide.

Even though only about 13% of all participants have experienced mild side effects, with 87% showing no side effects at all, safety has become a critical focus to parents who still hold concerns about a non-certified vaccine. Among some of the setbacks include the potential side effects and whether or not the vaccine will give children COVID-19.

According to Dr. Frenck, the vaccine does not give you COVID-19 because it is not a live virus. Testing on adults has been relatively safe on adults so far and the doctor anticipates that all age groups will receive the same doses of vaccine.