WASHINGTON (AP) – The government’s leading infectious disease expert said on Friday that he expects to see some children starting to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in the coming months. It is a necessary step to ensure broad immunity to the virus.
Vaccines have not yet been approved for children, but testing is already underway for children as young as 12.
If these tests are successful, Dr. Anthony Fauci said they would be followed up by another round of tests until the age of 9.
“Hopefully, when we get to the end of spring and beginning of summer, we will have children who can be vaccinated,” said Fauci at a coronavirus briefing at the White House.
Fauci expected a time when vaccines would be abundant. Even older adults are having a hard time getting injections right now. As of Thursday, only 1.3% of Americans had been fully vaccinated with the two necessary doses of vaccines currently available.
Children make up about a quarter of the population, and for the United States to achieve “herd immunity,” or widespread resistance, about 70% to 85% of the population must be vaccinated.
“Children tend not to get as seriously ill as adults, but they can still get sick and some have died tragically,” said Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency room medical and public health specialist who supports Fauci’s goal. “Children can also be vectors of transmission, and vaccinating children is important, as we seek collective immunity.”
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has emergency approval for use in people aged 16 and over. Moderna’s vaccine is for people over 18 years old.
Pfizer’s clinical trial for children 12 to 15 years old is fully registered, and the pharmacist may apply for emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for children 12 and older sometime in the first half of this year. The Moderna test for ages 12-17 is still recruiting.
Since the initial tests to validate the safety and efficacy of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines involved tens of thousands of people, age-related tests on children can be done in smaller groups.
“You don’t want to have to … pass an effectiveness test, which involves tens of thousands of children,” explained Fauci. “What you can do is a much smaller test, measured in hundreds to a few thousand … what we call safety and … immunogenicity.” This is a term that defines whether the vaccine successfully triggers an immune system response.
After a frustratingly slow start, the United States now administers about 1 million doses a day to adults, although that rate is still considered insufficient. President Joe Biden talked about 1.5 million doses a day, if that can be done. His government set a goal of 100 million kicks in the first 100 days.
Two more vaccines from American companies are approaching the stage where the FDA can evaluate them for approval. One from Johnson & Johnson requires only a single shot.
Biden also set a goal to reopen most schools by the summer and directed government agencies to work with communities to promote it.
Its US Congressional Rescue Plan legislation calls for $ 50 billion to fund a major expansion of testing, which is seen as necessary for the safe reopening of schools and businesses. That’s because robust tests can detect premature outbreaks before they spread through a community and trigger shutdowns. Tests in the US had a chaotic start and experts say that in many parts of the country it is still below average.