Moderna asks the US to license the use of vaccines for children under 6 years old

Children under the age of 6 are currently the only group that has not been accessed vaccine against COVID-19 in the US and most countries.

Managing director ModernaMr. Stephane Bancel said: “We believe that this vaccine can safely protect this group of children against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which plays a very important role in our long fight against the epidemic. COVID-19”.

Last March, Moderna, an American biotech company, announced that the test results showed that its two doses of COVID-19 vaccine were safe and created strong immunity. Especially, two doses of 25 micrograms for infants, young children and preschool children also produce antibody levels equivalent to two doses of 100 micrograms injected for young people aged 18-25, demonstrating the level of protection. equivalent protection against the risk of disease exacerbation.

The trial involved 4,200 children aged 2 to 6 years and 2,500 infants aged 6 months to 2 years. Side effects were mostly mild and were similar to those seen in the older age groups.

However, the company has found relatively low effectiveness in reducing the risk of infection.

Vaccines prepared by Moderna for children from 6 months to under 6 years old can safely protect this group of children against SARS-CoV-2 virus. (Photo: AP)

The trial took place amid a wave of infections with the Omicron variant, while generations of vaccines are currently designed to fight the original strain of SARS-CoV-2.

The effectiveness of the vaccine for children 6 months to 2 years old is 51%, the effectiveness for children 2 to 5 years old is 37%.

Moderna says that this level of effectiveness is similar to that of adults in the Omicron wave, and it is working on booster shots for all age groups of children.

It is the low efficiency rate when injecting two injections that is making the authorities hesitate in licensing.

In February, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) postponed a meeting of the committee that considered the licensing of Pfizer’s vaccine for children younger than 5 years old, because it wanted to have trial data. clinical trial of 3 injections before considering this issue.

At that time, Pfizer-BioNTech said that it was expected to have test results in April, but so far, the results have not been updated.

Scientists estimate that a vaccine for children must carefully weigh the benefits and harms. Even unvaccinated children under the age of 5 have very little risk of serious illness.

The US has recorded 476 deaths from COVID-19 in this age group since the beginning of the epidemic.

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