Currently, COVID-19 vaccines are only approved for adults. Specifically, the Pfizer vaccine is for anyone age 16+ and the Moderna vaccine is for anyone 18+. By May, everyone age 16+ in the United States should be eligible to get vaccinated.

What if you have kids under the age of 16? Kids and teens are not naturally immune to COVID-19. It seems that in many cases the younger population doesn’t get as sick from the novel coronavirus as adults, but that isn’t always the case.

Have no fear. Pfizer and Moderna are currently in the process of testing the vaccine on the under 16 demographic, and so far, so good. In fact, the first results from the Pfizer vaccine are pretty stellar.

In a phase 3 trial that included 2,260 participants from age 12 to 15, Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine had 100% efficacy. The drug company plans to submit these results to the FDA and European Medicines Agency “as soon as possible.”

In a press release, Albert Bourla, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Pfizer, explained, “We plan to submit these data to FDA as a proposed amendment to our Emergency Use Authorization in the coming weeks and to other regulators around the world, with the hope of starting to vaccinate this age group before the start of the next school year.”

In the phase 3 trial, 18 adolescents who received a placebo ended up getting COVID-19, but none of the adolescents who received the vaccine got the virus.

Pfizer and BioNTech are also working on testing the vaccine on children aged 6 months through 11 years old. The trial is being split into 3 groups, children age 6 months through 2 years old, children age 2 to 5 years old, and children age 5 to 11 years old. The 5 to 11 age group received their first dose last week, and the plan is to give the 2 to 5 age group their first dose next week.

In December, Moderna announced that they would be started a trial to test their vaccine on adolescents age 12 through 18. The company is also conducting a study of the vaccine on ages 6 months through 12 years old. This age group recently received the first dose of the vaccine.

Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson also plans to test their vaccine on children. They plan to start by testing it on only a small group of adolescents at first and then making the group larger assuming the results from the initial study show that it’s safe.

Do you feel a sense of relief or surprise knowing that the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine showed 100% efficacy for ages 12 to 15? What do you think the results will be for the younger age groups?