Moderna announced Tuesday that children had begun to receive its coronavirus vaccine as part of a trial testing whether the shot is safe and effective on minors.
The trial, consisting of 6,750 children, will first vaccinate older kids in order to determine the correct dose of the vaccine in children ages six to 12, the company said in a press release. It will gradually move to younger children and infants as little as six months old.
Once the correct doses are calculated, the trial will move on to its next phase where it will be tested against a placebo in order to determine whether it is safe and triggers an immune response to COVID-19.
The study will examine markers in the participants’ blood, allowing them to see a protective immune response without waiting months to see whether the vaccine blocked participants from becoming sick. (RELATED: Alaska The First State To Make Coronavirus Vaccines Available To All Residents 16 And Older)
Registered nurse Rhonda Ahn administers the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine to eligible people identified by homeless service agencies from the parking lot of the L.A. Mission on February 24, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. (FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
Moderna and Pfizer have ongoing trials in minors as young as 12, and are on track to report their results soon, The New York Times reported. Both two-dose vaccines were approved by the FDA in December.
Johnson & Johnson, whose one-dose vaccine was approved for adult Americans in February, has not yet begun to test it on children, but announced plans to do so in two separate trials. The first focuses on children ages 12 to 18, while the second trial ranges from infants to 18-year-olds.
Moderna is seeking additional volunteers for its trial, and more information is available here.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.