How to safely sign kids up for COVID-19 vaccine trials

Many parents are anxious to get their kids nether 12 vaccinated against COVID-19. One mode to bash that is to enroll children successful vaccine trials — but doctors accidental parents looking to motion their children up for trials should bash truthful safely.

Dr. Brian Chow, an infectious illness attending doc astatine Tufts Children's Hospital, says parents should beryllium definite to spell straight to Moderna's oregon Pfizer's websites. From there, parents tin benignant successful their zip codes to find a adjacent COVID-19 vaccine trial.

Talking with a pediatrician tin besides beryllium a mode to find a proceedings and get much accusation — but parents should support successful caput that it's not guaranteed their kid volition get the vaccine should they motion up.

"Oftentimes, they are comparing the vaccine to a placebo, truthful determination is simply a accidental that their kid could enroll successful the survey and not person vaccine," Chow said. "These studies are besides what's called blinded, truthful neither the researcher, the caregiver administering the vaccine, nor the parents oregon the kid receiving the injection volition cognize if they've gotten the existent vaccine oregon not."

For that reason, Chow says it's important for parents to support practicing COVID-19 precautions arsenic a kid goes done the trial.

As ever with objective trials, determination could beryllium imaginable broadside effects, truthful parents should consult with their child's pediatrician archetypal and thoroughly work the consent signifier that volition item the imaginable broadside effects.

Doctors person said from the commencement that the benefits of the vaccine greatly outweigh the risk, and there's real-world grounds of that from millions of radical astir the world.

When parents vaccinate their children, it tin besides payment those astir the child.

"They support those who are susceptible children, truthful they tin besides be school, and these are oftentimes their friends and neighbors," Chow said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention expects astatine slightest 1 COVID-19 vaccine to beryllium approved for kids nether 12 by the extremity of the year.