In an important step towards ending the coronavirus pandemic, children as young as 6 years old with the Covid-19 vaccine. Oxford University has launched a new study to assess its safety vaccine with AstraZeneca for the first time in children.
In a new statement, the university says it will assess the immune response in children aged 6 to 17, an age group affected difficult due to school closures due to the pandemic. About 300 volunteers have been enrolled, who are expected to receive their first vaccinations this month.
In the single-blind, randomized study, up to 240 participants will receive the COVID vaccine, while the control group will receive a meningitis vaccine, which is safe for children and produces a similar response.
“While most children are relatively unaffected by the coronavirus and are unlikely to go bad with the infection, it is important to determine the safety and immune response to the vaccine in children and adolescents, as some children may benefit from vaccination,” said Andrew Pollard, the chief investigator of the trial. “These new trials will extend our understanding of the control of SARS-CoV2 to younger age groups.”
A number of vaccinations, including the Oxford / AstraZeneca and Pfizer and Moderna formulas commonly used worldwide, have shown strong efficacy in preventing symptomatic infection. New data from Oxford earlier this month also provided the first evidence that its vaccine can not only prevent people with COVID-19 from becoming ill, but that it can significantly reduce its spread in the community.
The United Kingdom has the emergency use of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine in late December. The approval of the vaccine has been widely celebrated because it is cheaper to produce and easier to transport and store than other approved vaccines.
Researchers hope that expanding the vaccine to children will help alleviate the negative effects of the pandemic on young people around the world.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profoundly negative impact on the education, social development and emotional well-being of children and adolescents, in addition to illness and rare serious illnesses,” said Rinn Song of the Oxford Vaccine Group. “It is therefore important to collect data on the safety and immune response to our coronavirus vaccine in these age groups so that it may benefit from the inclusion in vaccination programs in the near future.”
Clinical trials are also underway in the US from vaccine developers Pfizer and Moderna to test the safety and efficacy of the doses in children. Dr. Anthony Fauci said last month that he hopes American children can be vaccinated “by late spring and early summer.”