Just a few days ago we pointed out that the University of Oxford had launched the first trial to assess the safety and immune responses of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine in children and adolescents, the first initiative of its kind.
Now it is Pfizer and BioNTech who have announced that the dose has been administered to the first participants in a global study to continue evaluating the safety, tolerance and immunity of their vaccine against Covid-19 in pregnant women over 18 years of age.
4,000 volunteers from nine countries, including Spain
In January 2021, the WHO issued a statement advising against vaccination in pregnant women due to lack of data:
“Pregnant women are at higher risk of severe Covid-19 infection than non-pregnant women and there appears to be a relationship between the disease and the risk of premature delivery. Despite this and due to the lack of data, at this time the WHO does not recommend vaccination of pregnant women ”.
However, this organization later clarified that this does not mean that vaccines can be dangerous during pregnancy , but rather that they are not recommended due to the lack of information about their safety:
“We have no specific reason to believe that there will be specific risks that would outweigh the benefits of vaccination for pregnant women.”
In order to fill this gap and to be able to protect pregnant women and their children, the American pharmaceutical company and its German partner have begun this trial in which 4,000 pregnant women over 18 years old who are between week 24 will participate. and 34 gestation. Some will receive both doses of the vaccine, and others will receive placebo, three weeks apart.
The study will study the evolution of the women between seven and 10 months after receiving the vaccine, depending on whether they have been inoculated with a placebo or Pfizer serum and its effect on babies.
In fact, the results may be encouraging, since just a few days ago we echoed the case of a baby who had been born with coronavirus antibodies after his mother received the first dose of the vaccine (in this case, Moderna) during the pregnancy.
They will also study the effects of the vaccine in children
The document “Vaccination strategy against COVID19 in Spain” indicates that positive cases of the virus in minors represent 10% of Covid-19 cases and less than three per thousand of deaths, so that the child and adolescent population it cannot be considered a priority group for vaccination.
Still, it is important to know if those under 18 are also protected against Covid-19 after receiving the dose and if they can therefore benefit from it later.
Hence, the announcement made by AstraZeneca about its study in children is also joined by Pzifer: in the coming months it will begin its trial in children between 5 and 11 years of age to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. It will be added to the one that is already underway in adolescents between 12 and 15 years old and on which it wants to present results in the second quarter of 2021.
Via | Pzifer
In Babies and More | Can I get vaccinated against Covid if I want to get pregnant? The placenta protects the baby from Covid, even if the mother suffers a serious infection during pregnancy
