COLORADO, USA — We could be only months away from a COVID-19 vaccine for kids 5-11 years old as Pfizer's trial studies the vaccine in 4,600 children worldwide – nine-year-old Daemo Gregorie-Cradick is one of 250 kids participating in the trial at Children's Hospital Colorado.
"I was super excited because I knew, now if I do this, I could actually help the vaccine out," said Daemo. He said he is the only one is his family who has not been vaccinated. His mother, father and 13-year-old brother Ezra have all received a COVID-19 vaccine.
"I have to admit it kind of, so when I heard that Ezra got his vaccination, I was excited for him, but was kind of sad that I couldn’t get one and still had to wear that sticky, smelly, disgusting mask," he said.
The 9-year-old, along with other children in the trial, are set to begin receiving their second doses in the next couple of weeks. Doctors will not reveal whether participants received the actual vaccine or the placebo for six months.
"I’m hoping that I get the real vaccination, but we don’t really know because I have not had any side effects, no sore arm, not any of that, but it’s just the first shot, so you never know," said Daemo.
His father, Greg Cradick, said he and his wife signed up their son for the trial without hesitation. "Daemo was the last in line and so we wanted to put him at the head of that line," he said. "anything we can do to sort of get the vaccine out there...we just looked at the facts and realized there wasn’t really a risk."
All trial participants will be monitored for two years.
9NEWS Health expert Dr. Payal Kohli explained why it's important for people in this age group to get vaccinated:
Dr. Kohli: It's really important for this age group to get vaccinated really for two reasons. One is the bigger public health implication, which is that if we don't get everybody vaccinated, including our younger kids, we will create, essentially, a reservoir of infections. The virus will continue to persist and it could come back and even infect those that are vaccinated.
The second reason really relates to our little kids. Even though they're unlikely to have a very severe or life threatening complication, we now have a Delta variant. We now have all these aggressive variants and we don't know what the long-term implications of being infected with those types of variants at a young age are.
When can we expect vaccines for this age group to receive emergency use authorization?
Dr. Kohli: It's very interesting because there's even a debate in the scientific community about whether for kids we should do emergency use authorization of full-use authorization. Part of the reason for that is because they're a lower risk group, but I'm hoping later this year in the fall we'll have some information.
How does this trial differ from previous COVID-19 vaccine trials in adults, if at all?
Dr. Kohli: We're using different doses and trying to figure out based on the children's size what dose is appropriate for what size kid and so I think this is going to give us a lot of information about how the vaccine works and these young kids will really help us to identify more about the science of the vaccine.
How is a child's immune system different from an adults?
Dr. Kohli: In a way, a child's immune system is learning a little bit more, it's a little more adaptive than an adults so this trial is really intended for us to figure out the correct dose because kids are a lot smaller than adults and then also figure out how the vaccine responds in the body. So what sort of immune response does that generate and what does that translate in terms of clinical protection? The types of cells and immune responses that children have can be different than what adults have.
What's your message to parents who are hesitant to vaccinate their children?
Dr. Kohli: I think it's every parents fear that they're doing something to their child that's called an error of omission that could result in a bad outcome, but I just want to remind every parent that there's also errors of omission so not getting your child the vaccine could result in an even worse outcome for your child. Vaccinations have been around for decades and this particular vaccine has now been more studied in the adult population.
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