ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Pediatric trials of the COVID-19 vaccine are drawing a lot of interest in the St. Louis area.
Pfizer is already well into its vaccine trial in children. Other vaccine manufacturers are either just starting theirs or are getting them ready to go.
Dr. Jason Newland, a professor at pediatrics at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, is heading up the pediatric vaccine trials at WashU.
"We are really excited about getting some vaccine trials going at WashU," said Dr. Newland. "We have an enormous amount of interest from the community in our current online registry. We have over 10,000 children that are in this registry which is really exciting."
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"We're still waiting to hear when we will be up and running with some of thes trials and once we get permission, we will definitely let the community know about those next steps to get actual shots in arms or at least get those studies going," Dr. Newland tells KMOX.
As for the goal of these studies?
"The main goal of these vaccine trial studies is to show safety," said Dr. Newland. "There is some efficacy to it, but the biggest thing is safety. And so they're all geared toward giving the vaccines -- although I have to let you know that some volunteers will get a placebo -- and then we will see about the safety and will monitor some efficacy as well," said Dr. Newland.
Washington University is one of many children's vaccine study sites across the country.
For more info on these vaccine studies or to register your child in the online registry go to is.gd/kidscovid.
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