Children have yet to be involved in any clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine, meaning they may have to wait significantly longer than the rest of the population to be inoculated, according to Business Insider.
The drugmakers developing the vaccine candidates now in the final stage of clinical testing — Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson — all told Business Insider they plan to test their vaccines in children, but none gave an estimated timeline of when a vaccine could become available for children.
Moderna shared its plans to begin a pediatric trial with Business Insider, saying it hopes to get one underway by the end of 2020, pending regulatory approval.
"Right now I'm pretty worried that we won't have a vaccine available for kids by the start of next school year," Evan Anderson, MD, an Atlanta pediatrician, told The New York Times.