Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testified during a hearing of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Work and Pensions (HELP) at the Capitol in Washington, USA
Kevin Dietsch | Reuters
The United States can begin vaccinating older children against Covid-19 this fall, while elementary school children can begin receiving their vaccines early next year, White House medical director Dr. Anthony Fauci told legislators on Wednesday.
“For high school students, it looks like they will be available to be vaccinated in the early fall, most likely in the fall,” Fauci told lawmakers during a hearing with the Chamber’s Energy and Commerce Committee.
Fauci said the researchers are likely to have enough data on the immunization of younger children – 12 years and under – to start applying them in the first quarter of 2022.
The Food and Drug Administration has authorized Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines for people aged 18 and over, while the Pfizer vaccine can be used on people aged 16 and over.
Drugmakers are rapidly testing their coronavirus vaccines on children to determine whether they are safe and effective. Both Pfizer and Moderna began testing their vaccines on teenagers last year.
Moderna said on Tuesday that it began administering younger children in an intermediate to final stage study to determine whether its vaccine, mRNA-1273, can be used to immunize children between six months and 12 years of age. The study, which will involve about 6,750 children in the United States and Canada, will test the company’s two-dose vaccine administered 28 days apart.
However, Moderna’s CEO, Stephane Bancel, said in January that he does not expect data for children under 12 to be ready before 2022, although he predicts more information on vaccine performance among those 12 and older before of September.
“I don’t think the tests take too long,” Dr. Paul Offit, a member of the FDA’s Vaccine Advisory Committee, told CNBC’s “The News with Shepard Smith” on Tuesday.
“I think it is very likely that children over the age of 12 will receive vaccines until the summer and, for younger children, it is possible that we will receive them by the end of this year, beginning of the next,” said Offit.
A Pfizer spokesman was not immediately available to comment on the company’s progress in testing its vaccine on younger children.