Nearly 7,000 children aged 6 months to 12 years in the US and Canada will participate in Moderna’s vaccine trial.
Moderna Dr. Jacqueline Miller said: “Children often need lower doses of vaccines than adults. Moderna wants to make sure it finds the most appropriate dose to increase children’s immunity.”
The age groups in this Moderna’s vaccine trial are children 6 to 11 years old, 2 to 6 years old, and then 6 months to 2 years old.
Moderna and Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine was approved for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2020. The two pharmaceutical companies have already tested the COVID-19 vaccine on children 12 years of age and older and expect results by the summer of 2021. Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson, the company whose COVID-19 vaccine received an emergency use license in February 2021, has yet to announce plans to test its vaccines in children.
More than 70 million American adults, 28% of the adult population, received at least one shot of COVID-19 vaccine. About 22 states and the Washington, DC, have allowed people 16 and older at high risk to be vaccinated.