Biontech and Pfizer are now also testing their corona vaccine on the youngest - a date for the start of the vaccination is already in view.
The corona vaccine from Biontech / Pfizer * is currently only conditionally approved for people aged 16 and over.
However, the infection rate has accelerated especially among the younger ones.
Now the companies have started a new study.
Mainz - "We get a lot of mail from parents who have children with previous illnesses and are therefore worried - and want nothing more than a vaccine for them": Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) said at the last joint Corona press conference RKI boss Lothar Wieler before Easter.
"Children are not little adults," continued Spahn.
Your body reacts differently to the dose and active ingredient.
And Wieler warned, in view of the increasing vaccination rate in Germany: "The fact that the elderly are protected does not mean that the younger ones no longer need to be protected."
Corona in children: RKI reports worrying development
The role of children and adolescents in the spread of the pathogen has changed.
The number of Covid-19 cases is currently increasing particularly strongly among them.
In the under-14s, the 7-day incidence more than doubled nationwide within a month - it recently rose to 100, according to the RKI.
Corona vaccines that are also approved for children could help.
And after the competitors Moderna and Astrazeneca, the Mainz-based company Biontech and its US partner Pfizer have now started testing their vaccine on younger children.
The companies confirmed this to the news agencies
dpa
and
AFP
.
Biontech / Pfizer test corona vaccine on children: "We are proud"
"We are proud to be doing this much-needed study," said Pfizer.
Hopefully the vaccine can also be used in this age group from the beginning of next year.
The clinical tests are intended to examine the safety, tolerability and effectiveness of the vaccine in healthy children between six months and eleven years, it said.
2259 children in this age group are reported to take part in this study.
The data are promising and should be published soon.
If the authorities approve approval, the vaccine could be available for younger children in early 2022.
The company had previously already started testing its corona vaccine based on mRNA technology in children between the ages of twelve and 15.
Corona in children: Severe courses up to death possible
As a rule, children are spared severe Covid-19 diseases, but there are also isolated cases of serious diseases and even deaths.
In addition, a corona infection can trigger the dangerous inflammatory syndrome MIS-C in children.
That being said, infected children can pass on the novel coronavirus.
In many countries, children must also be vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity.
The US company Moderna and the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company Astrazeneca had already started testing their corona vaccines on younger children before Biontech / Pfizer.
The US manufacturer Johnson & Johnson plans to follow suit soon.
(frs with material from dpa and AFP)
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