Baby Becomes World's Youngest Person to Get 2 Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Doses

A baby involved in clinical trials into the effects of COVID vaccinations among children has reportedly become the youngest person in the world to get two Pfizer jabs against the disease.

The federal government has only approved the vaccine for children as young as 12.

However, Mike and Marissa Mincolla, both doctors from Baldwinsville, New York, said they had no qualms about their eight-month-old son, Vincenzo, or "Enzo" being administered with two doses of the vaccine at Upstate Medical University.

"We both feel it's important to end this pandemic, and the quickest and safest way is to vaccinate our way out of it," Mike Mincolla said, according to Syracuse.com.

Enzo is among 16 babies involved in phase one of trials at four sites in the U.S. into the effects of the Pfizer vaccine on children under five.

Joseph Domachowske, a pediatric infectious disease doctor at Upstate, said that Enzo was the youngest to get the two doses, which at three micrograms taken three weeks apart, was one-tenth of the vaccine quantity that adults get.

Micolla said that his son did not experience any side effects, slept and ate normally and was not irritable. He hoped this experience would ease concerns among his own patients who may be reluctant about the jab.

"I tell them, 'I feel so comfortable with this vaccine I gave it to my seven-month-old child,'" he said. "It's safe, effective and it works." The couple has enrolled their four-year-old daughter for the trial. "We are helping science and evidence-based medicine," he added.

Domachowske, who is also the trial's principal investigator, said Pfizer had put a temporary stop to the trial to assess whether the dose quantity was the right one, saying "the concern is the dose may be too low for that age group."

Meanwhile, blood tests will ascertain whether the babies developed antibodies. If these levels are too low, the next test may involve higher doses.

This month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a Pfizer COVID vaccine for adolescents aged 12 to 15. Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock, said in a statement that the move "is a significant step in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Children and adolescents with COVID-19 tend to experience milder symptoms than adults although some have developed Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children or "MISC-C."

Domachowske said in a statement last month that this was why "we need safe and effective vaccines for children to keep them healthy, to prevent MIS-C, and to reduce potential transmission to others."

Newsweek has contacted Upstate Medical University and Pfizer for further comment.