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Australian toddlers could be used in a global trial for the new Moderna Covid vaccine as its manufacturers seek approval for use on children around the world.
About 6,000 children aged six months to 12 years will be targeted in a clinical trial of the vaccine.
And the company – which begins shipping the first of 10 million doses of the vaccine to Australia next month – says it wants to include young Australians in the trial.
Australian toddlers could be guinea pigs in a global trial for the new Moderna Covid vaccine as its manufacturers seek approval for use on children around the world. Here we see a child about to be vaccinated
Details of the clinical trial plan are included in a single paragraph of the company’s 189-page quarterly financial statement released on Wall Street last Thursday.
In an escalation of US trials on adolescents, the company reveals its track record of expanding testing to younger age groups in a “randomized, observer-blind, placebo-controlled study.”
The US-based Moderna company said it wanted to test the vaccine on “about 6,000 healthy children, aged 6 months to [under] 12 years “.
The company plans to test different dose levels in three different age groups, 6 to under 12, 2 to 6 and 6 months to 2 years.
He adds: “The study will include the United States and up to two countries ex-United States (eg Canada and / or Australia).”
Moderna starts shipping the first of 10 million doses of the vaccine (pictured) to Australia next month and says it wants to include young Australians in its experiment on children
News of the trial comes just 24 hours after Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said permission to use the Moderna vaccine on adults in Australia was expected within the next two weeks, before it arrived. in the country next month.
Once approved, the first million doses of the Moderna vaccine will arrive in Australia in September, and supplies are expected to reach three million per month from October to December.
This is in addition to the effective doubling of Pfizer mRNA vaccines at two million doses per week, as well as the Australian-made AstraZeneca.
Moderna says he wants to test the vaccine on “about 6,000 healthy children, aged 6 months to [under] 12 years’
The surge in supply has already seen vaccination rates double from 700,000 per week a month and a half ago to nearly 1.3 million in the past seven days.
“What it shows is that we can hit two million a week in Australia,” Hunt told ABC’s Insiders program on Sunday.
Talks are also reportedly underway between the Australian government and Moderna over the possibility of building a vaccine manufacturing plant in Australia.
The SMH reports that the government is discussing with several companies the opening of a production center for an mRNA-based vaccine – such as the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines – in 2023.
The TGA is also evaluating a new antibody treatment, Sotrovimab, which is expected to be available for use later this year.
“This drug is not for everyone,” Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly told reporters in Canberra.
Authorization for the Moderna vaccine to be used on adults in Australia is expected within the next two weeks, before it arrives in the country next month. Pictured are health workers at the new vaccination clinic by car in Melton, Victoria
“It will mainly be aimed at unvaccinated people. It will be primarily intended for people most at risk of serious illness, and it should be given at the start of treatment.
The federal government is also providing $ 17.7 million to quickly establish 10 mental health support pop-up sites in and around Greater Sydney and to extend the operation of at least 12 clinics in Victoria through June.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Sunday announced 262 other viral infections as well as a new death, in an unvaccinated 80-year-old woman.
This brings the death toll in the current outbreak to 28.
The surge in supply has already seen vaccination rates double from 700,000 per week a month and a half ago to nearly 1.3 million in the past seven days. A woman is seen here getting vaccinated in Sydney on Sunday
In Queensland, Cairns was quarantined on Sunday after a taxi driver tested positive among nine new cases reported in the state.
The driver had been contagious in the community for 10 days before his test. The rest of Queensland, however, saw the restrictions lifted on Sunday night.
Victoria recorded 11 new cases midway through her weeklong lockdown, all linked to previously reported cases although they were not in quarantine while infectious.
Federal Minister Stuart Robert was asked on Sky New’s Sunday Agenda to confirm reports that the government had appealed to the US administration Biden for additional vaccines.
“There are ongoing conversations all over the world,” said Mr. Robert.
Moderna’s supply will increase supply to two million doses per month while Pfizer vaccines will increase to two million doses per week, along with the Australian-made AstraZeneca. Seen here the queue of people waiting to be vaccinated at a pop-up clinic in Lakemba in Sydney on Sunday
“You can be assured that the government will spare no effort to maximize the number of vaccines for our people, our Pacific Island family and of course our region at large.”
However, there is still hesitation about getting vaccinated.
Union adviser Michelle Rowland said one problem in her NSW electorate that covers Blacktown is the ability to get information.
“When you go to the information checker you can get information in Icelandic but you cannot get information in Tamil and I have one of the highest proportions of Tamil speakers in all of Australia in my electorate, ”she told Sky News.
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