Coronavirus vaccines for children could be ready by the end of the year, pediatric experts say.
The coronavirus vaccines “appear to be very safe. That’s reassuring when we’re going to be working with children.”
Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, pediatric infectious disease expert
Vaccines to immunize children against the coronavirus could be ready by the end of the year, Bay Area experts in pediatric immunology said Wednesday, following Moderna’s announcement that it is expanding its drug trials to include children up to age 12.
A pair of studies involving adolescents from vaccine maker Pfizer also are moving ahead, with participation in the Bay Area from Kaiser in Oakland and Stanford University researchers.
Pfizer announced in November that it was expanding its trial in teenagers to include youth ages 12 to 15, with investigators from Kaiser, Oakland, enrolling participants in Santa Clara and Sacramento.
“Reading the tea leaves, there may be emergency use authorization for children by December,” said Dr. George Rutherford, an expert in pediatrics and epidemiology at UCSF who is not involved in the studies.
At Stanford, Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, a pediatric infectious disease expert, said a vaccine for adolescents could be ready by late summer if the data from trials for that age group is ready in time. She will be leading a Pfizer study of adolescents beginning next month.
Studies typically start with the lowest possible dose for each age group, gradually increasing the amount to find the most effective dose with the fewest side effects, Maldonado said.
Vaccinating kids is important to reaching herd immunity, she said, with a quarter of the U.S. population under age 18 — about 85 million people — and especially “because we know that not every adult will get vaccinated.”
The new Moderna study expects to enroll 6,750 healthy kids, from age 6
months to just under 12, from the U.S. and Canada, the company announced Tuesday.
“This pediatric study will help us assess the potential safety and immunogenicity of our COVID19 vaccine candidate in this important younger age population,” said Stéphane Bancel, Moderna’s chief executive, referring to the ability of the vaccine to provoke an immune response.
The study will look at the effectiveness of two
doses of vaccine given to the children 28 days apart, similar to the regimen of double doses for adults. Participants will randomly receive a placebo or the vaccine. Even the study observers won’t know which child got which.
The company did not respond when asked which hospitals were participating in the new study, or how participants could join.
While the coronavirus does infect children, about 60% show no symptoms, compared with about 40% of adults who are symptom free, Rutherford said.
The Pfizer study of adolescents at the Stanford School of Medicine and the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital is expected to begin in late April.
The vaccination trials
“obviously will be voluntary, and the Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines have been given to millions of adults,” Maldonado said. “They appear to be very safe. That’s reassuring when we’re going to be working with children.”