DRUGMAKER Moderna said Wednesday that it would soon begin testing its coronavirus vaccine in children ages 12 to 17. The study, listed Wednesday on the website clinicaltrials.gov, is to include 3,000 children, with half receiving two shots of vaccine four weeks apart, and half getting placebo shots of salt water.
Moderna announced Monday that data from its study in 30,000 adults had found its vaccine to be 94.1 percent effective and that it had applied to the Food and Drug Administration for emergency authorization to begin vaccinating adults.
But no vaccine can be widely given to children until it has been tested in them. Vaccines meant for both adults and children are generally tested first in adults to help make sure they are safe
“Everyone anticipates that when we test this first in adolescents, then older children, then the real small kids, that the COVID vaccine will work,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an adviser on vaccines to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (The New York Times)
