COVID 19 Tech

Kids 5-11 appear safely protected by small doses of COVID vaccine, Pfizer says

Vials of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.

Enlarge / Vials of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. (credit: SOPA images )

Small doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 mRNA in children ages 5 to 11 appeared to produce strong antibody responses and comparable side effects to those seen in older age groups, according to the first top-line results from a Phase 2/3 clinical trial released by Pfizer and its partner BioNTech early Monday.

The trial data involved 2, 268 children ages 5 to 11 years, and these children were given a series of two 10-microgram dosages of the vaccine, 21 days apart. The dosage is just the third of the 30-microgram doasage amounts given to people ages 12 and above.

One month after their second dose, researchers measured the children’s levels of antibodies able to neutralize SARS-CoV-2 virus in a lab experiment. The geometric mean titer of antibody in the 5 to eleven year olds was 1, 197. 6 (95 percent confidence interval of 1, 106. 1 in order to 1, 296. 6), which is comparable to the geometric mean titer of 1, 146. 5 seen within people ages 16 to 25.

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