As the vaccination of 5-11 years old has been recently approved in France and is said to expect this Wednesday, drugmaker Pfizer is already working on the next age group to vaccinate, namely children under 5 years of age. The company has started to test their Covid-19 vaccine several weeks ago and announced they want to add a third dose to their trials.
Pfizer wishes to seek approval for the second quarter of 2022. Yet, the vaccination protocol poses a problem since the proper dose is difficult to find. For this age group, it is lighter than for adults, namely 10 micrograms instead of 30. According to primary results with two doses, children had higher fever than older age groups. Therefore, the laboratory lowered the dosage, but the immune response observed was rather light.
This is why Pfizer has decided to change the protocol of their trials to include a third dose. It is expected to be given “at least two months after the second one”. The company also announced they have started testing 600 teenagers aged 12 to 17 for a booster shot. Moderna has not been left out since they have launched many clinical trials in the United States.
