Coronavirus: Testing on kids is a nervous next step on way to Covid-19 vaccine

NEW YORK: There are many questions surrounding children’s role in the coronavirus pandemic but one thing is clear: they’ll need a vaccine, just like adults.

That means injecting dozens of kids with an experimental product — a prospect that makes many parents nervous. The University of Oxford and AstraZeneca Plc plan to start testing their jab in 5- to 12-year-olds as schools and nurseries reopen in the U.K.

Children appear to be less affected by Covid-19, though their role in transmission of the virus remains unclear. A vaccine would protect them and ensure they don’t infect others who are more at risk, like teachers or grandparents. But the pandemic has struck at a time of growing defiance against mass immunizations.

“These are of course very personal decisions, but everybody needs to ask themselves: Would I want the vaccine for my child later on, when other people have contributed to making it safe?” said Beate Kampmann, professor of pediatric infection and immunity and director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine’s vaccine center. “We have to be grateful to people who have taken that little bit of a punt.”

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Kids were excluded from Oxford’s early research