Less than three weeks have passed since the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC gave the green light for the COVID-19 vaccine for children aged five and older. And already more than 2.6 million children have been vaccinated. There is a very small age group left in the US who are not allowed to be vaccinated, and this is likely to change soon.
In a statement to Business Insider, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Chief Medical Adviser to the President of the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauci said he expects the vaccination age to drop to six-month-old babies next spring. However, he added that there is no guarantee in this regard.
Although all three vaccines currently available in the US have undergone clinical trials in adults, children’s bodies, particularly their brains and immune systems, differ from adults in a few key ways. This difference is especially true for toddlers and babies, who often still depend on their mothers’ immune systems to boost their own immunity. In fact, there is some evidence that fetuses and mothers of unweaned infants benefit from immune vaccines.
Therefore, it is crucial that any potential vaccine is thoroughly tested in this younger group before it becomes widely available. Pfizer has the advantage: the mRNA vaccine is being trialled on young children across the country, with “pretty positive” results, according to local researchers. Moderna’s vaccine may come a little later, as they’ve just started a nationwide clinical trial for six-year-olds. Johnson and Johnson had planned to run clinical trials on this age group since February, but could not start it yet due to regulatory delays.
Although the effects of COVID-19 infection in young children are usually less severe, there is still a risk of being fatal. For example, by one estimate, one in 1,000 children who contract the disease may develop an incompletely understood and potentially fatal syndrome called multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C).
Experts hope the trials will be successful. If successful, babies over 6 months old can start vaccinating towards the end of April 2022.
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