As the COVID-19 delta variant continues to spread across the country, and the academic year looms on the horizon, public health officials are working to vaccinate as much of the population as possible – including young children.
Dr. David Wohl is a professor of medicine and top infectious disease expert at UNC. He said, as students return for in-person instruction, it won’t be long before they’ll have the chance to get their vaccine.
“I do think we’ll see children 5 to 11-years-old get vaccinated sometime not too long from now, probably in the fall,” Wohl said. “And we’ll see that happen probably around the same time that we’re giving boosters to some of those folks who qualify for boosters. And I think that will be important. The more people who are vaccinated – and by people, I mean, not only eligible people for vaccine, but all human beings – the less we’ll see this virus propagate from person to person, less variants, less people sick.”
As opposed to the earlier versions of COVID-19, the delta variant produces a higher viral load in people’s noses and throats with longer periods of shedding, making it much more infectious. Wohl said one infected person could transmit the virus to anywhere from four to eight other people. He said this means it’s more important than ever to get the younger population vaccinated, especially as they return to congregate, school settings.
“We will use vaccines in them [children] to not only protect the people around them, which is really the motive for I think a lot of vaccination of younger people, but we’re learning that delta probably hurts kids more than the previous variants,” Wohl said. “And there’s long COVID symptoms that are developing in children too. That’s very distressing.”
While Wohl said UNC is not participating in the Pfizer COVID vaccine trials for kids, right next door at Duke, studies have been underway since earlier this year.
Dr. Michael Smith is a Professor of Pediatrics and one of the lead investigators of the ongoing COVID vaccine trials at Duke. Clinics across the nation began Phase 1 clinical trials of the vaccine in 5 to 11-year-olds in March.
Smith said, while the COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective for all people, these Phase 1 trials involved lowering the dose to create less adverse side effects while still producing an adequate antibody response in kids.
“The initial adult trials used a dose of spike protein mRNA, which is the antigen in the vaccine, that was pretty high,” Smith said. “And you need to do that because, remember early on in the pandemic, the people that were getting really sick and dying from COVID were the elderly who have a weaker immune system. So similar to other vaccines that we give folks above 65, there was a lot of antigen in there.”
Smith said the vaccine for kids under 12 will have a lower dose of these antigens. Following those initial Phase 1 trials in March, Duke, alongside 100 other sites across the U.S., is now verifying and observing the side effects and efficacy of the new dose.
Pfizer plans to enroll 4,500 kids in its vaccine study, 100 of which are already enrolled at Duke.
“It’s been a really rewarding time,” Smith said. “In fact, one of the issues we have is that there’s a pretty long wait list to even get into the trial. So, it’s been particularly rewarding and most of our trial participants are just excited and happy to be in. My favorite story is, earlier on in the year, when we first started going down to the younger kids, one of our patients actually said all she asked Santa for this year was a COVID vaccine. So, she was really excited to be in the trial.”
Of the children who have already been inoculated in the study, none are seeing any unexpected side effects, according to Smith. He said initial study data should be available by early September with Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA expected by the end of the calendar year.
Lead photo via Shawn Rocco/Duke Health.
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