CINCINNATI — An Ohio hospital is participating in a COVID-19 trial for children ages 5 to 11-years-old.
In October 2020, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital began a clinical trial for the Pfizer vaccine with ages 16 to 17 in October 2020. Later that month, they extended that by adding children ages 12 to 15-year-olds.
On March 29, they started with eight children for the Phase 1 study to determine the best dosage of the Pfizer vaccine for children 5 to 11-years-old.
They plan to move down to 2 to 4-year-olds next and then to larger numbers of children after that.
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital is one out of four sites in the country participating in trials with children.
A spokesperson for the hospital told 10TV they already have 500 families who have already expressed interest in participating. The later studies will include both placebo and the vaccine.
On Monday, all Ohioans 16 years and older became eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.
Tamara McCall is a mother in Columbus, she made the decision to get the vaccine.
“I was very hesitant at first, did a lot of research, read a lot of information on it. After I did that and I know many people who have already received their first dose, a lot of people I know they’re even fully vaccinated as of right now,” McCall said.
Even with her experience going well and doing a lot of research, she’s a bit nervous for her 17-year-old daughter, Addisyn McCall, to get vaccinated. She had similar feelings.
“Yes, because it was new and not knowing if it was tested on people my age,” Addisyn said.
However, the two expressed that they want to do their part in helping the world get back to a sense of normalcy. The 17-year-old said that through this and through feelings of being unsure, she’s relying on the medical experts.
“Information from doctors, to me, I feel like that matters the most. Like they’re the ones that probably have a better understanding and have done way more research than me,” Addisyn said.
Dr. Mark Herbert, an infectious disease doctor from the Mount Carmel Medical Group, expects that teenagers will have similar immune responses to those of adults getting vaccinated.
He suggests that teenagers, anyone really, should prepare for a vaccine by drinking a lot of liquids and having a healthy diet.
As for why he feels it’s a good path for kids and teens to be getting vaccinated, is to protect not only them but others around.
“We know that younger people have less complications with the infection, but they’re just as likely to pass the infection along to older people who may be at increased risk, this is truly something that young people in the community can do to protect the rest of the community,” Dr. Herbert said.