When will Children Get COVID-19 Jabs? A Look at Age Threshold for Pfizer, Moderna and Other Vaccines

Even though frontline workers and aged people are being prioritized to get COVID vaccines in many countries, teenagers in a certain age group may also receive the shot soon.

Ever since the coronavirus vaccine rollout, most of the countries have given preference to frontline workers and aged people in the mass vaccination program. As vaccination programs are progressing steadily in various countries, several people have started asking about the time in which children will receive the COVID vaccine.

When will Children Receive Coronavirus Vaccine?

Even though inoculation among children is purely dependent on their age, some teenagers in a particular age group may receive the coronavirus vaccination soon. The vaccine developed by Pfizer is already cleared for use among children above the age of 16, which means, a section of teenagers who are eligible due to availability and medical conditions may get the before too long. On the other hand, the Moderna vaccine is currently cleared for people aged above 18 years.

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Both Pfizer and Moderna have already completed enrolment of children above 12 years to test their vaccines, and the results are expected to come out this summer. Authorities believe that priority groups will be vaccinated by the end of this summer, and young people will be the next class who will become eligible to receive the shot.

The Complexity of Vaccinating Small Children

According to medical experts, vaccinating older children are less risky, as they will respond to the shots in a similar manner to adults. However, testing and vaccinating smaller children could be complex.

"Children are not just small adults. The younger you get, the higher the odds are that things could be different," said Dr. James Campbell of the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Associated Press reports.

Even though the mortality rate among children due to coronavirus infection is pretty low, they play a crucial role in spreading COVID among adults in their families. Due to this risk factor, medical experts strongly believe that it is very much essential to vaccinate children too.

"There's no question: we do want to immunize children. It's unlikely we could get community protection without immunizing children. This is the lynchpin to getting everything back to some kind of normalcy," said Sarah Long, a pediatric professor at Drexel University.

Coronavirus: Latest Statistics

When the first case of coronavirus was reported in December 2019, in Wuhan, China, no medical expert believed that this viral infection will pull the entire world into a state of chaos. The viral infection soon spread like wildfire and emerged as a global pandemic. According to the latest statistics, there are more than 114 reported COVID-19 cases worldwide, and the death toll has crossed 2.5 million.

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