Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, stated during Friday’s White House coronavirus briefing that vaccine manufacturers are currently conducting trials to determine the safety and efficacy of the coronavirus vaccine in children.
Fauci, outlining the “road map” for when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will issue an Emergency Use Authorization for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in children, said manufacturers hoped to have conclusive data on high school-aged children “sometime in the fall.” (RELATED: Dr. Anthony Fauci Says Vaccinating All Teachers As A Prerequisite For Reopening Schools Is A ‘Nonworkable Situation’)
White House Chief Medical Adviser on Covid-19 Dr. Anthony Fauci listens to US President Joe Biden (out of frame) speak during a visit to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, Feb. 11, 2021. (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
Starting in April, they are going to be studying 12-year-olds down to 5- or 6-year-olds.
“We anticipate data on high school-aged individuals, namely individuals 12 years old to 17 years old, by the beginning of the fall,” he stated. “Maybe not exactly coinciding with the first day of school, but sometime in the fall we will have that.”
He explained that the age-gated trials would only be conducted with 3,000 individuals, as opposed to the 30,000 that took part in the original studies, and will determine whether “it safe in the children” and whether it induces “an immune response that’s comparable or not inferior” to the vaccine’s efficacy rate among adults. (RELATED: ‘We Don’t Know For Certain’ — Biden Doesn’t Want To ‘Overpromise’ But Hopes The Pandemic ‘Is Going To Be Done’ In A Year)
Fauci conceded that the structure of the trials makes it “more than unlikely that we will not have data on elementary school children until the first quarter 2022.”
The White House has increased weekly vaccine distribution by nearly 60% since Biden’s inauguration on Jan. 20, but the administration also announced during Friday’s briefing that shipments of roughly 6 million vaccine doses had been delayed due to Winter Storm Uri.
WASHINGTON (AP) — White House says winter weather has temporarily delayed shipment of 6 million coronavirus vaccine doses.
— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) February 19, 2021
You can watch the entire briefing below.
WATCH: