Researchers test vaccines in adults first and then usually move down, including Moderna and Pfizer. AstraZeneca is now testing its vaccine in children six months of age, and Johnson & Johnson plans to extend its vaccine trials to young children. “1,2,3 …” Dr. Susanna Naggie counts her twin daughters through their first dose of a Pfizer shot. The nine-year-olds are among fewer than 150 children in the Phase 1 study for children up to 12 years of age. “It was exciting, but also a little nerve-wracking and scary for the first part, but it’s really easy,” said Marisol Gerardo, her daughter and a Pfizer test participant. That’s Lois and she for seven weeks. And that’s Charlotte. She turned two on Tuesday. Rachel Gurthie, a nurse, got vaccinated while pregnant and passed antibodies on to her newborn. Her two-year-old daughter and three-year-old son are among the first 750 children to receive the Moderna vaccine. “I do this because I love them and I want them to be safe. I want them to go back to normal and our children to go back to normal at school,” said Gurthie. When will this arrive normally? Or at least when will a vaccine for children come out? Pfizer hopes to start vaccinating children between the ages of 12 and 15 inches before the start of the next school year. Johnson & Johnson said vaccines for children under the age of 18 could be available in early March by September. However, pediatric experts say broad COVID vaccinations for children will not take place until next year at the earliest. “There won’t be vaccines for all children this fall. The timeline is not there to test them and make them available. But hopefully there will be vaccines by early 2022,” said Dr. Richard Besser, CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, pediatrician and former CDC director, “If you talk about your immune system, your immune system is still growing as it is. And there is a big difference between a six month old immune system and a six year old Immune system and a 16 year old immune system. “Dr. Frank Esper, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Cleveland Clinic, said: For many COVID, vaccines have been shown to be safe and effective in adults. The FDA won’t ask for such a large study for children. It remains to be seen how willing parents will be to sign up their children for shots. “Whatever the new normal, I want us to get there,” Gutherie said. Vaccinating children also plays a big role in finding herd immunity. Experts have said that around 75-80% of Americans need to be vaccinated to achieve this. Children make up about a quarter of the population, and every American adult is unlikely to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
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