The University of Oxford plans to test the effectiveness of anti-covid vaccines in children for the first time, joining other vaccine manufacturers in evaluating whether their coronavirus vaccine is effective in young people.
In today's testing announcement, it is stated that the University is trying to hire 300 volunteers between the ages of six and 17, up to 240 of them will receive the covid vaccine and the rest the control vaccine for meningitis.
Andrew Pollard, lead researcher at Oxford University, says that although most children do not get seriously ill from Covid-19, it is important to determine the safety and immune response of the vaccine in children and young people, as children could benefit from vaccination.
Regulatory bodies in more than 50 countries have approved the use of the Oxford vaccine, manufactured and distributed by the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, for use in people over 18 years of age.
Other pharmaceutical companies are also testing vaccines against covid-19 on children. Pfizer, whose vaccine is already approved for use in people 16 and older, began testing the vaccine in children as young as 12 in October. In December, Moderna also started testing children at least 12 years old.
Pollard said the Oxford testing could help policymakers decide whether at some point they want to expand the mass vaccination program to children as they try to keep schools safe and fight the spread of the virus in the wider population.
"For most children, covid is really not a big problem. However, it is certainly possible that wider use (of the vaccine) can be considered to try to stop the progression of the pandemic in the future, so here we are just trying to establish the data that would support that if policy makers want to they're going in that direction," Pollard said.
Bonus video:
