Pharmaceutical company Pfizer has announced that it will initiate the second phase of clinical tests for its coronavirus vaccine for children aged between six months and 11 years. The tests will be conducted in the US, Finland, Spain, and Poland, and 4,500 children are expected to take part.
Pfizer announced that the first phase of tests in the US involving 144 children in this age range showed a strong response of their immune systems and did not display any safety issues.
The new phase will be divided into two dose regimes — 10 micrograms for children aged five to 11 years and three micrograms for children younger than that. Adults and children aged over 12 receive 30 micrograms. Test results from the older group of children are expected in September and in October or November for the younger group.
The vaccine created by Pfizer and German BioNTech has already been approved for use for children aged 12 to 15 years by US and EU regulators. In the United States, almost 7 million teenagers have received at least one dose of the vaccine.
United Surveys recently carried out a survey for Polish radio RMF FM and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna concerning whether Poles would vaccinate their children against the virus.
The survey showed 43 percent of respondents would definitely vaccinate their children (a 1-percentage point increase compared to a survey from May 7) while 19.2 percent of Poles answered that they would probably vaccinate their children (a 7.5-percentage point decrease). This means that 62.2 percent of Poles would or likely would vaccinate their children.
The number of Poles unwilling to do so, however, has slightly risen in the past weeks, with 20.1 percent of respondents stating that they would “definitely not” vaccinate their children (only 13.7 percent had said so in May). Another 6.8 percent of Poles would “probably not” vaccinate their children (a 2.2-percentage point decrease).
Another 10.1 percent of Poles remain undecided, compared to 8.7 percent in May.
