Dr. Fauci says ‘hopefully’ COVID-19 vaccine will be approved for infants, young children by spring 2022

Dr. Anthony Fauci expressed hope this week that COVID-19 vaccinations will soon be approved for infants, toddlers, and young children.

Although it has been just weeks since the government approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 12, Fauci said that “hopefully” the vaccine is approved for infants and young children by next spring.

“Hopefully within a reasonably short period of time, likely the beginning of next year in 2022, in the first quarter of 2022, it will be available to them,” Fauci told Business Insider.

“Can’t guarantee it— you’ve got to do the clinical trial,” he added.

More from Business Insider:

Pfizer seems to be the likely frontrunner in the race to vaccinate babies and toddlers, because its pediatric vaccine trials are already underway. (Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are also planning to trial their COVID-19 vaccines in young kids, but Moderna is still in the recruitment phase for children in the 6 month to 6 year cohort, while J&J has had some regulatory delays, and is still testing its vaccine in 12-17 year olds.)

Pfizer-BioNTech said in September that results from their clinical trials for “children 2-5 years of age and children 6 months to 2 years of age” are expected as soon as the fourth quarter of this year. – READ MORE