Moderna COVID-19 vaccine safe and protective for kids, company says
Global News
Moderna says clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine show that it is safe and protective in children aged 5-11.
Moderna Inc said on Monday its COVID-19 vaccine generated a strong immune response and was generally well-tolerated in children aged six to 11 years, and the company plans to submit the data to regulators soon.
Moderna said its two-dose vaccine generated virus-neutralizing antibodies in children and safety was comparable to what was previously seen in clinical trials of adolescents and adults.
A panel of FDA advisers will vote on Tuesday whether to authorize rival Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine for use in children aged five to 11 years.
The Moderna COVID-19 vaccine has been authorized for adults over the age of 18 years, and recently gained clearance for a third dose in some Americans.
However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is yet to authorize the vaccine for use in adolescents aged 12 through 17. Sweden has paused the use of the Moderna vaccine for younger age groups after reports of cases of heart inflammation in young adults.
Moderna said majority of the side effects in the trial, which had 4,753 participants, were mild or moderate in severity, with fatigue, headache, fever and injection site pain the most common.
The vaccines used in the trial were 50 microgram doses, half the strength used in the primary vaccine series for adults. The 50 microgram dose is also authorized for use as a booster shot.
B.C. health authorities have announced the first case of a human avian flu infection acquired in Canada, with the teenage patient in critical condition in hospital.
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The Liberal government and the NDP negotiated the substance of a pharmacare bill as part of their now-defunct supply-and-confidence agreement.
Kennedy ran as an independent presidential candidate but gave Trump his endorsement with a promise to have a role in health policy in the next Trump administration.
Emergency services are at the scene of a train derailment Thursday morning on Montreal's south shore, where they are urging citizens to stay away from the area.
"I was yelling at them saying get the F** away it’s a wild animal," resident Josh Merrin told Global News. "Sorry about my language."
H5 bird flu is widespread in wild birds worldwide and is causing outbreaks in poultry and U.S. dairy cows, with several recent human cases in U.S. dairy and poultry workers.
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Dr. Anna Wolak, a family physician in Vancouver, said many parents are likely having flashbacks to the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, despite this flu being a single case.
WHO acknowledged that testing for mpox is still not widespread, making it difficult to understand how exactly the virus is spreading.