How effective is Moderna’s vaccine for teens, children?
As the delta surge wanes, health officials are pushing to vaccinate a wider portion of the population to prevent another major uptick in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
This week’s COVID Help Desk tackles forward-looking questions about Moderna’s vaccine efficacy in children, national and statewide vaccine rates and the feasibility of another vaccine on the U.S. market.
How effective is Moderna’s shot for teens and children?
While Pfizer-BioNTech nears emergency authorization to expand eligibility to children in the 5-11 age group, Moderna has yet to receive emergency authorization from federal health agencies to administer its shot in most teenagers as well as younger children.
Moderna announced in May that late-stage clinical trials showed strong efficacy for the 12-17 age group, with none of the roughly 3,700 study participants showing symptomatic infection after a two-dose series. The company in June applied for emergency authorization for that age group. Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel told Reuters on Wednesday that he believes the Food and Drug Administration will approve the shot for adolescents “in the next few weeks.”
The company also published positive data on Monday from clinical trials in the 6-11 age group. The data showed that children between the ages of 6 and 11, who were given half the dosage adults were administered, showed a similar antibody response as adults who received the Moderna shot. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Moderna’s vaccine is about 93 percent effective at preventing hospitalization in adults with COVID.
The company plans to apply for regulatory clearance for the 6-11 age group “very soon,” Bancel told Reuters.
How quickly are vaccine rates rising?
State vaccination trends mirror those of the country, with a slightly lower percentage of the Texas population seeking the shots. The delta wave drove up vaccine rates across the state, from a seven-day average of
46,519 new doses on July 4 to 98,299 by Aug. 31, according to data from the CDC.
Vaccine rates fluctuated in September but started falling again in early October, as the delta variant subsided. In Texas, the seven-day moving average of new doses has dropped by 34 percent, from 73,599 on Oct. 1 to 51,831 on Oct. 22. As of Wednesday, nearly 64 percent of the state’s eligible population was fully vaccinated.
“As delta fades into people’s memories, people will very quickly forget we had a major surge in August and September and that hospitals were full,” said Dr. James McDeavitt, executive vice president and dean of clinical affairs at Baylor College of Medicine. He said federal vaccine mandates will play a key role in addressing vaccine holdouts.
In less populated parts of the state, such as West Texas, a lack of healthcare infrastructure contributes to a slowing vaccine rate, said Dr. Susan Wootton, professor of pediatric infectious diseases at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston. People who live in low-income areas also are less likely to have access to quality healthcare, she said.
“Were trying to think of ways to bridge that and find ways that are convenient for these families,” she said.
Is another vaccine going to become available in the United States — and when?
Dr. Peter Hotez and Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi, Baylor College of Medicine scientists who co-direct the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development, drew on years of past research into severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) to develop a COVID vaccine that now is poised for emergency approval in India.
But right now, the vaccine lacks the financial and logistical resources to make headway into the U.S. market anytime soon.
“If we identify a U.S. vaccine development and manufacturing partner this would be a possibility,” Hotez said in an email.
COVID vaccine trials are ongoing at the Galveston National Laboratory at UTMB, the nation’s largest high-security containment facility on an academic campus. Three or four candidates have shown positive results in preclinical studies in animals and could reach clinical trials next year, said Dr. Scott Weaver, the laboratory’s scientific director.
But those vaccines, which are designed to create better protection than the existing shots, face similar financial obstacles as the one developed at Baylor, he said.
“There’s a little bit less pressure to make a new vaccine than there was at the beginning of the pandemic,” he said.
Weaver said one vaccine, made by Novavax, appears the most likely candidate for U.S. approval. The company this week said it filed for authorization in the U.K. and will likely seek approval in other global markets soon.