Experts Share Mixed Vaccine Timelines For Kids Under 12 As COVID-19 Cases Rise

Dr. Anthony Fauci said there's a chance vaccines could be approved as early as this fall. The NIH's director said it may be later.

As coronavirus cases among children continue to rise in the U.S., there’s a chance those under the age of 12 will be eligible for a coronavirus vaccine before the end of the year, Dr. Anthony Fauci and the U.S. surgeon general said Tuesday, even as the director of the National Institutes of Health said that that may be pushing it. “I think there’s a reasonable chance that that will be the case,” Fauci, who serves as President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser and as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview with NBC’s “Today.” “We’re collecting that data now,” he said of ongoing clinical trials involving pharmaceutical companies Moderna and Pfizer, which manufactured two of the vaccines available in the U.S. “That data ultimately will be presented to the [Food and Drug Administration] to look at it for the balance between safety and risk-benefit ratio for the children. I hope all of that process will take place expeditiously,” he added, while giving a hopeful timeline of “mid-late fall and early winter.”