[국제]Corona vaccine clinical trials for children begin…

[앵커]

The currently released COVID-19 vaccine is only available to adults over the age of 18, but it is expected that children can get the vaccine as early as this summer.

Vaccine developers such as Pfizer, Modena, and AstraZeneca entered the clinical trials of vaccines for children at once.

Reporter Kim Hyung-geun on the report.

[기자]

This year, 14-year-old Ella is undergoing blood tests in her lab at Oxford University.

This is because they participated in a clinical trial of a child’s COVID-19 vaccine.

[엘라 / 어린이 백신 임상시험 참여자 : 연구에 도움을 주고 또 우리를 보호해줄 백신이 출시되도록 하는 것은 좋은 일이라고 생각해요.]

The University of Oxford and AstraZeneca clinical trials involve more than 300 children between the ages of 6 and 17.

240 people will be vaccinated against coronavirus and the rest will be vaccinated against meningitis to compare the differences.

[앤드류 폴라드 / 옥스퍼드 백신그룹 책임자 : 어린이를 대상으로 백신의 내구성과 면역반응을 확립하기 위한 첫 평가입니다. 하지만 앞으로 더 많은 숫자의 어린이를 관찰하는 것이 필요합니다.]

Pfizer and Modena of the United States have also begun recruiting participants in clinical trials for children 12 years of age and older.

Pfizer will conduct clinical trials with 2,000 people and Moderna 3,000.

The results of clinical trials in children are expected to be available by this summer.

[앤서니 파우치 / 미국 전염병·알레르기연구소 소장 : 늦은 봄이나 초여름쯤 아이들이 FDA의 지침에 따라 예방 접종을 받을 수 있도록 연령을 낮추는 방식으로 임상시험을 할 것입니다.]

The reason that the COVID-19 vaccine has been released only for adults so far is because the older the people, the more severe the symptoms and the higher the mortality rate.

However, in order to end COVID-19 through collective immunity, 70-80% of the population must be vaccinated.

You can’t reach this ratio without children.

This is why the US and Europe are rushing to develop vaccines for children.

This is YTN Kim Hyung-geun.

[저작권자(c) YTN & YTN plus 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]