While Southern California is working on getting the Covid-19 vaccine distributed to health care workers and people 65 and older, the next question many are asking is when there might be a viable vaccine for children?
34 million adults in the U.S. have received the vaccine, but children can't receive the same vaccine as kids, so a viable vaccine for them is not yet available. What's good is that kids are less likely to transmit Covid-19 in their household than adults and when infected the cases tend to be milder.
But just a few months ago, the American Academy of Pediatrics and other pediatric vaccine experts pushed officials for more action on vaccine trials for kids and vaccine companies said they're already on it. The trials are vital to make sure the right
- Pfizer has already enrolled 2259 teens aged 12-15 in vaccine trials and they expect to do more pediatric trials of children 5-11 by the spring.
- Moderna started vaccine trials for teens aged 12-17 in December, and picked up the pace last month.
- Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca say they expect to begin pediatric trials sometime this spring.
Gary & Shannon were joined by Dr. Roshni Mathew, Pediatric Infectious Disease Physician at Stanford Children's Health to talk about pediatric vaccine trials and when we might see a viable vaccine for kids under 16.