Recently, many school districts have approved of kids going back to school in person, and parents are eager to have their children vaccinated. While vaccines have been approved for kids over 12, the same cannot be said for those under. 

So far, no Covid vaccines have been approved and researchers have been seeking a safe, and effective vaccine for children ages 5-11. Thankfully, some information about the trials have surfaced. For example, Dr. Flor Munoz, who is running the Pfizer study, has said that after collecting data from a trial it showed that one-third of the adult dose is the best range for younger children. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has stated that the company is running large studies. Dr. Peter Marks, the director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said that they will, “Move swiftly once those data are submitted, but first the trials have to be finished up, or at least the parts of the trial that can be submitted to us have to be finished up, and then the data needs to be submitted to us.” 

Waiting for the vaccine might be stressful to some parents, but luckily it might not be long until the vaccine is out. Albert Bourla thinks that the company’s studies will be completed in September and that the company could then submit the data to the FDA. Pfizer also expects data on toddlers up to age 4 soon afterwards. Usually, it takes the Food and Drug Administration a few weeks to review the data, so it’s been estimated that the vaccine for young kids will be ready in October. However, this is assuming that the results of the trials are good. Dr. Marks has stated that the agency, “Has to wait for the company to submit the data from those trials so that we have a good safety dataset, because we certainly want to make sure that we get it right in the children ages 5 through 11 and then even in younger children after that.” So, if everything goes well the vaccine can be assumed to come out in fall at the earliest.

Many parents are worried about staying safe, and are following Covid safety guidelines. Researchers are working hard to find an efficient, and safe vaccine, and the wait is almost over.