When will children get a coronavirus vaccine? Not in time for the new school year, experts fear. - Washington Post

As the United States eagerly awaits the availability of a safe, effective vaccine for the coronavirus that has plagued the nation for months, a significant group, making up more than one-fifth of the population, will need to wait longer for immunization: children.

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, acknowledged it is going to take time, perhaps even months, before those younger than 18 can get a coronavirus vaccine, as trials to test the vaccine candidates’ immunogenicity are either underway or have yet to begin.

“Before you put it into the children, you’re going to want to make sure you have a degree of efficacy and safety that is established in an adult population, particularly an adult, normal population,” he said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” NIAID and Moderna did not respond to requests for comment about the pediatric trials or Fauci’s suggested timeline.

Children’s immune responses are different from that of adults, so there is a consensus that pediatric trials are critical for testing the safety, efficacy and immunogenicity (or effective immune response) of vaccines on kids.

But some experts have said testing on children should have begun sooner, especially after the successful adult trials.

Even after vaccine producers announce expanded trials for children, it will still take time to recruit young participants, gather data and get approval, not to mention scaling production, Pavia said.

The lag in testing the experimental vaccines on children prompted American Association of Pediatrics President Sally Goza to write to federal leaders in September, arguing pediatric trials were essential for curbing the pandemic, as older children could transmit the virus as much as adults.

Van Rompay, who is part of a research team that has tested vaccines for HIV and covid-19 in young rhesus macaques, said children tend to have stronger immune responses to vaccines than older people, which is one reason immunizations for measles, mumps, rubella and other viruses are given early in life.

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