The vaccine was about 51% effective against the omicron variant infection in children under 2 years of age and about 37% effective in children aged 2 to 5 years, according to the company press release. Dr Paul Burton, chief physician at Moderna, said these levels were similar to two-dose protection for adults. The protection provided by the Moderna vaccine against infection has been significantly reduced by the 90% effectiveness of the vaccine when the vaccines were first introduced. The omicron variant, which has more than 30 mutations, is capable of preventing antibodies that prevent the virus from invading human cells. However, Burton said children under 6 taking two doses should have high levels of protection against serious illness. Adults have about 1,000 antibody units after two doses with at least 70% protection against serious illness, while children in the study had 1,400 to 1,800 antibody units after two doses, he said. “What we do know is that these levels of antibodies will translate into very high protection against serious disease and hospitalization,” Burton said. None of the children in the study were treated with Covid, he added. Moderna plans to study a booster dose for children under 6 with a redesigned vaccine targeting the micron as well as the original strain of the virus that appeared in Wuhan, China. One of the reasons the effectiveness of the vaccine against infection has declined so sharply is because current downloads continue to target the Wuhan strain, even though the virus has evolved dramatically since it was first discovered in late 2019. If approved by the FDA, children under 6 years of age will receive two 25-microgram vaccines, a much lower dose than the 100-microgram vaccines currently approved by the FDA as the main adult vaccination series. Burton said the safety profile for children was reassuring, with 0.2% of children having a fever of 103 degrees Fahrenheit or 40 degrees Celsius. About 17% of children under 2 years of age developed a 100-degree Fahrenheit fever, with just over 14% of children aged 2 to 6 years developing such a fever, according to a press release issued by Moderna in March on the results of the study. of. Children under the age of 6 are in the only age group in the US that is not yet eligible for vaccination. The FDA has promised to move quickly to approve vaccines for infants, toddlers and preschoolers as soon as vaccine manufacturers make complete applications. Dr Peter Marks, who heads the FDA office responsible for vaccines, told the Senate Health Committee this week that a committee of independent advisers to the Drug Regulatory Authority will meet to fully review the data. “We will move at full speed as soon as we have full applications,” Marks said. He told the committee that the FDA would publish a timetable next week for advisory committee meetings on many emergency applications. The FDA is in the process of clearing out several possible dates for the commission meeting in June, according to a person familiar with the matter. Parents have been waiting for months for a way to protect their children from the virus. During the winter micron wave, children under the age of 5 were treated with Covid at five times the rate of the pandemic when the delta was prevalent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 75% of children under the age of 11 had been infected with Covid since February, according to data released by the CDC this week. The FDA initially sought to expedite the approval of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine for children under 5 years of age in February by clearing the first two doses of the three-shot vaccine. However, Pfizer decided to postpone its application and wait for data for the third download, because the results from the first two doses were not good enough. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a podcast interview that the first two shots were only 30% to 40% effective, but he expects the third dose to significantly improve protection. The vaccine has a dosage level of three micrograms, much less than the 30 micrograms used for adults. Burla said he hopes the Pfizer vaccine will receive FDA approval in June.
