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The University of Oxford will begin testing the Covid-19 vaccine with which it was developed AstraZeneca Plc on children, a potentially important step in ending the global pandemic.
The Oxford trial plans to enroll 300 children deprecated 6 to 17, the university said in a statement Saturday. The first vaccinations will take place this month, with as many as 240 children receiving the coronavirus vaccine and the rest a meningitis shot, which should cause similar side effects. Later in the US, Astra is expected to conduct a larger trial involving thousands of children.
The phase II study will take place in Oxford and three UK cities – London, Southampton and Bristol – and will assess safety and immune responses in children. Researchers will test the shot on children deprecated 12 to 17 years before moving into the younger age group, with initial data expected by summer, Andrew Pollard, lead investigator on the trial, said in a Bloomberg interview.
The study will look at two dosing regimens one month and three months apart, Pollard said.
Child tribulations started in earnest late last year after the safety and efficacy of the front-runner vaccines in adults were established. Pfizer Inc., which has an approved vaccine for humans deprecated 16 and older, completed enrollment for the 12- to 15-year-old trial last month with more than 2,000 children tested. Moderna Inc. tests his shot on teenagers and too Johnson & Johnson is expected to begin child trials soon.
We planned to conduct child trials from the outset “to make sure we had the best chance of accessing the vaccine for all ages,” Pollard said. “I am absolutely delighted that today we are starting the pediatric trials after this long journey that we have come.”
While most children have limited or no symptoms of Covid-19 and rarely become seriously ill, little is known about how much they can transmit the virus. Vaccinating young people may be the key to halting the spread of the virus, keeping schools open, and preventing older family members and community members from getting sick.
From February 4 According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, approximately 2.93 million children in the US had tested positive for the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.
Adds Oxford as a test site in third paragraph