WASHINGTON, D.C. (KERO) — Children in the United States may soon be able to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Moderna announced Thursday it's seeking emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration for its vaccine for children from six months to five years old.
Last month Moderna released results from a clinical trial that found two of its lesser-dose shots provided about the same immunity levels for children as the full vaccine does for young adults. The findings were based on 6,700 children under five.
"These are exciting results and important day for us. When we looked at these children and we had 7,000 of them in this study, first of all, we looked at safety," explained Dr. Paul Burton. "As a dad, as a physician, that is obviously what we want to look at first, particularly in this very young group. The safety was very reassuring, what we have seen in older kids, and other populations, some injection site pain, a little bit of fever, but no excess risk of high fever. So that was really reassuring. And then when we look at antibody levels, we wanted to see levels that were similar to what we found in young adults, 18 to 24. It is -- that's exactly what we found. So overall, I think this is a very reassuring result and good news."
Moderna officials say the vaccines are safe and common reactions were minimal, including pain at the injection site.
The FDA says it will inspect Moderna's submission and will meet with an advisory committee to discuss the issue.
