Toddlers and babies as young as 6 months old are testing Covid-19 vaccines to help make sure they’re safe for other young children. If the pediatric trials go well, children under 12 might be eligible to get vaccinated this fall or winter.
For many parents, the decision to volunteer their kids was easy.
One family knows the anguish of suddenly losing a healthy child to unexpected illness and doesn’t want any other family to endure the same.
Other parents want their children to go back to school and play with friends safely — without masks and without worrying about new coronavirus strains or complications such as MIS-C.
And one family is so passionate about helping protect kids, they’ve enrolled all three children — ages 6, 3, and 14 months — in a Covid-19 vaccine trial.
“We lost our daughter to something we couldn’t control,” [Rebecca] Calloway said.
But Covid-19 “is something we can control. (Vaccines) have been shown to work for millions of Americans.”
“We can be part of showing people that yes, this is safe,” the mother from rural Maryland said.
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Moderna said if trials go well, its vaccine may be available for children under 12 years old this winter or in early 2022.