COLUMBIA, S.C. — One of the COVUD-19 vaccine makers, Moderna, recently started their vaccine trial for young children. Currently, there are no COVID-19 vaccines approved for that age group.
"This is a great step in developing the outcomes of how children are protected against COVID-19," Dr. Anna Kathryn Burch said.
Dr. Anna Kathryn Burch is an infectious disease pediatrician at Prima Health and she said the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine trial will focus on kids as young as 6-months-old to 11-years-old.
"We as pediatricians are so excited that the companies who produce the vaccines are starting to look at vaccines for COVID-19 in children," Burch said.
Burch said most children who contract the virus do well with it, but this could help prevent MIS-C, which is multi-inflammatory syndrome. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), it's a condition where different body parts can become inflamed.
"This specifically looks to see how well the vaccine protects children against COVID-19," Burch said.
While Burch said this is great news for parents, she is hopeful the approval will happen sooner rather than later.
"It will be a little more rapid then the traditional testing of the vaccine in this age population," Burch said. "I hope that we will have a vaccine approval soon, in months from now. They are just looking to make sure that the dosing is OK and that children make antibodies, and then they will actually look at the effectiveness of protecting the child from COVID-19."
But until there is an approval, Burch said parents can keep practicing the same strategies as mask wearing, social distancing and hand washing to protect their children.
"For those patients who are not able to get the vaccine, we need to continue to do those mitigation strategies to protect them," Burch said.
According to Moderna, all the participants in the study will be monitored for a year after they receive their second shot.