Pfizer now testing Covid vaccines in children under 12

James Crump
·1 min read
<p>A health worker prepares a dose of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine at a Covid-19 vaccination site at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas on 15 March 2021</p> ((AFP via Getty Images))

A health worker prepares a dose of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine at a Covid-19 vaccination site at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas on 15 March 2021

((AFP via Getty Images))

Pfizer has begun testing its coronavirus vaccine in young children under the age of 12, following an announcement from Moderna earlier in the month that it was doing the same.

On Wednesday, the pharmaceutical company began its testing on young children by administering vaccines to a pair of 9-year-old twins at Duke University in North Carolina.

The New York Times reported that data from the trial is not expected until later in the year, with the company not planning to vaccinate younger children until 2022.

Moderna announced earlier in the month that it is testing its Covid-19 vaccine in children between the ages of six months and 12, while Johnson & Johnson revealed that it plans to start the same trials soon.

Both Pfizer and Moderna are already testing their vaccines on children over the age of 12 and expect to have results of those tests in the next few weeks.

Sharon Castillo, a spokeswoman for Pfizer told the Times that the company initially planned to wait until it had results from older children before starting trials with children under 12.

However, Ms Castillo, who did not elaborate on the results, said that Pfizer decided to bring forward the trail because “we were encouraged by the data from the 12 to 15 group.”

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