The US government should have information on the safety of vaccines on children in high school by the beginning of the autumn, but probably only next year, said dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday.
Companies have just started testing with younger age groups, but they have tested their vaccines on 12- to 17-year-olds, Fauci said at an information session in the White House.
‘You know from Pfizer that they started the trial of 34,000 individuals to 16-year-olds, and then progressed to 12-year-olds. So what they are going to do in April, from April, they are going to study 12-year-olds to 5 to 6-year-olds, ‘Fauci said.
“It will probably take one year to get the information about it – probably only in the first term,” added Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and also White House medical adviser.
‘However, we expect the data on individuals in high school age, namely individuals from 12 years to 17 years old, to be by the beginning of autumn. It may not exactly coincide with the first day of school, but somewhere in the autumn we will have it, ”Fauci added.
Companies can test their vaccines on fewer children because they have safety and efficacy data from adults, Fauci said. “The end of it all is therefore as follows. It is very likely that somewhere in the autumn we will have data that will give us the ability to say that the safety and comparable efficacy in children is 12 to 17, 18 years old, ”he added.
“But then, with the studies I just mentioned, to get the information to make a decision in primary school children, it will surely only be confirmed in the first term of 2022.”
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