Teens take part in COVID-19 vaccine trial

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    Atlanta (WGCL) — With school returns and vaccination phases for adults in progress, some Atlanta families say vaccine research in kids is long overdue.

“They’re athletes, they’re trainers, they’re circus aerialist,” said mom Danielle Hanson about her two daughters.

The 16-year-old students, who spend about 15 hours each week suspended in the air, are used to taking risks.

But one risk they no longer want to face is getting COVID. It’s why Danielle and her husband talked to teens about Moderna’s trial in Georgia.

“They know how vaccines work so it was a no-brainer for them. They were immediately like ‘can we get in on that,'” the mom recalled.

The Hanson sisters are among the 3,000 youths between 12 and 18 in Moderna’s trial. Two-thirds will be administered the real vaccine dose while the remaining will get a placebo shot.

Although the sisters are in the trial, Danielle says she made it clear it’s not an excuse for them to go back to what their used to doing.

“They know they still have to wear their masks, they know they still can’t go out with friends and just whatever they want.”

It is a shot at some normalcy like family travel again if the trial goes well. Danielle also told CBS 46 having her kids enrolled in the research now hopefully means a faster rollout for kids across the country later.

In an interview with CBS Minnesota, researchers at Johns Hopskins said it could be many months before anything is official.

Scientists expect it won’t be sooner than fall for doses get to kids anywhere in the US.

In Moderna’s trial, officials anticipate having the results by summer. But FDA greenlight could be much later than that.

There is still no clear plan yet on how vaccines will be administered to kids, if they must wait until after a certain amount of adult groups are vaccinated before children phases begin.

“I think they’re moving through the approval process as fast as they can but it kind of concerns me that I don’t know what the plans are once something is approved, like how do we get it to all the kids and adolescents.”

Meanwhile Pfizer has also begun its trial in children. Researchers expect results to be sent to the FDA around this summer.

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