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. 2021 Mar;147(3):e2020040717.
doi: 10.1542/peds.2020-040717. Epub 2020 Dec 17.

Enrolling Minors in COVID-19 Vaccine Trials

Kevin Mintz  1 , E Jardas  1 , Seema Shah  2   3 , Christine Grady  1 , Marion Danis  1 , David Wendler  4
Affiliations

Enrolling Minors in COVID-19 Vaccine Trials

Kevin Mintz et al. Pediatrics. 2021 Mar.

Abstract

It is widely agreed that an effective response to the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic needs to include a vaccine that is safe and effective for minors. However, many current vaccine trials have no plans for when to enroll minors. Others have recently proposed enrolling minors as young as 12 years old. This lack of a systematic approach raises 2 concerns. Waiting too long to enroll minors could unjustly deny minors and their families the benefits of a vaccine and has the potential to delay an effective response to the pandemic by a year or longer. At the same time, enrolling minors too soon runs the risk of exposing them to excessive risks. With these concerns in mind, in the present article, we propose recommendations for when and how to enroll minors in vaccine trials for the coronavirus disease 2019.

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Conflict of interest statement

POTENTIAL CONFLICT OF INTEREST: The authors have indicated they have no potential conflicts of interest to disclose.

References

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