The University of Oxford plans to test its AstraZeneca-produced COVID-19 vaccine on children for the first time, it was announced on Saturday.
The study seeks to recruit 300 volunteers between the ages of 6 and 17, with up to 240 receiving the COVID-19 vaccine and the rest a meningitis control vaccine.
The test will begin this month at the university and elsewhere in London, Southampton and Bristol, Sky News reported.
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Andrew Pollard, lead researcher for the Oxford vaccine trial, says that while most children are not seriously ill with COVID-19, “it is important to establish the safety and immune response to the vaccine in children and young people, as some children can benefit of vaccination. ”
The undated archive photo shows a volunteer receiving the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. (John Cairns / Oxford University via AP, Archives)
Regulators in more than 50 countries have authorized the widespread use of the Oxford vaccine, which is being produced and distributed by AstraZeneca, for use in people over the age of 18.
Professor Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group and professor of pediatric infection and immunity receives the vaccine from Oxford University / AstraZeneca COVID-19 at Churchill Hospital in Oxford, January 4, 2021 (Steve Parsons / Pool Photo via AP)
Other pharmaceutical companies are also testing COVID-19 vaccines in children. Pfizer, whose vaccine has already been authorized for use in people aged 16 and over, began testing its vaccine in children from October 12. Moderna in December began testing its vaccine on children as young as 12 years old.
Pollard said the Oxford test should help lawmakers decide whether, at some point in the future, they want to extend mass vaccination programs to children, as they seek to ensure the safety of schools and combat the spread of the virus in the general population. .
“For most children, for themselves, COVID is not really a big problem …” Pollard told the Associated Press. “However, it is certainly possible that broader use to try to stem the progress of the pandemic could be considered in the future, so here we are just trying to establish the data that would support that, if in fact lawmakers wanted to go in that direction. ”
Although children are generally less at risk of serious illness after contracting the coronavirus, a pediatrician and clinical scientist at the Oxford Vaccine Group said it was important to test the vaccine in children due to the negative effect of the pandemic on their education and emotional well-being.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound negative impact on the education, social development and emotional well-being of children and adolescents, as well as rare diseases and presentations of serious illnesses,” Rinn Song told the Guardian. “Therefore, it is important to collect data on the safety and immune response to our coronavirus vaccine in these age groups, so that they can potentially benefit from inclusion in vaccination programs in the near future.”