Infant, Toddler COVID Vaccine Trial Launching In NJ

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — Rutgers University is launching a coronavirus vaccine pediatric trial for babies and toddlers, and is currently seeking children to enroll.

Rutgers is looking for children 6 months to 4 years to participate; the university did not say how many children it is seeking for the trial in its Nov. 24 announcement.

Moderna is currently testing its vaccine on babies and children as well, but does not have any trial sites in New Jersey.

Earlier this year, Pfizer selected Rutgers as one of its main vaccine trial sites. This spring and summer, Pfizer tested its vaccine on children ages 5 to 11 at Rutgers. New Jersey parents showed so much interest in that 5 to 11 trial that children had to be turned away. More than 1,200 children signed up, and Rutgers accepted about 100, according to Dr. Simon Li, a Rutgers pediatrics professor who ran the trial.

Before it was given FDA approval, the Pfizer-BioNTech children's vaccine was tested on approximately 4,644 children at trial sites in the United States, Finland, Poland and Spain. In early May, it was announced that one of those sites was Rutgers' New Brunswick campus. All the trials are done at the Pediatric Clinical Research Center at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson medical school.

This is the third time Rutgers has served as a COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial site for pharmaceutical companies. Last fall, it also conducted trials for coronavirus vaccines from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson. Rutgers college students participated in the Johnson & Johnson trial.

If you want to enroll your child in the Pfizer trial:

Pediatricians and parents who are interested in their children being considered for the vaccine clinical trial can click here.

Children who meet the eligibility requirements for the study will be randomly selected to receive two doses of the potential vaccine or a placebo six months after the second dose. Those who participate will be told whether they received the vaccine or the placebo and will be offered the vaccine at that time if they had not been vaccinated.

Researchers will track whether those who were vaccinated have lower rates of infection with moderate to severe symptoms than those who were unvaccinated over two years.

“Children can get sick from COVID-19 and can spread the virus to others even if they are asymptomatic. While most children experience mild or no symptoms, some children can get severely ill and could have long-term effects,” said Dr. Li. “Maximizing COVID-19 vaccination in all age groups is important to stop the global progression of the disease. Vaccination will also help us feel safer about our children resuming school and daily activities.”

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