It is no secret that India is struggling to fight this second wave of the COVID-19 virus. It is hitting us a lot harder than expected and we are at the end of our rope. However, there are vaccines now, which are available for adults. Depending on the availability and any health issue, people older than 18 should be starting to get their vaccines.

This is why many people predict that the third wave of the Coronavirus will affect children the most. As such, vaccine companies are now developing COVID-19 vaccines for children. So, very soon, there should be vaccines for 2-18-year-olds available in your area, too!

This article will shed some light on the Coronavirus vaccine for kids. 

Coronavirus Vaccine In India

Covaxin is a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech. Recently, after receiving the needed approval from the Subject Experts Committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), they announced that the second and third trials of Covaxin will be on 2-18-year-olds.

For this, the vaccine will be tested on a total of 525 subjects at institutions all over India (Meditrina Institute of Medical Sciences Nagpur, AIIMS Patna, and AIIMS Delhi). 

It is difficult to conduct trials and develop a vaccine for children because they are so different from adults. Their immune system and responses vary a lot. Most children who got infected are not affected by the virus but can spread it to others.

For these reasons, vaccines for children require more complexity and the trials require more nuance than those for adults.

Coronavirus Vaccine In Other Parts Of The World

• The Pfizer vaccine is widely used in Canada and the USA.

• The developers of this vaccine say it is completely safe for children to be vaccinated.

• In the US, the use of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on children of the age range 12-15 has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). 

• Canada, too, has approved this.

• The vaccine developers have also started trials for vaccines for children between the ages of 6 months and 11 years. The results of the same should be available by September.

• Now that these two countries have allowed vaccines for children, it can be expected that many more countries will follow in their footsteps and provide vaccines for children.

When Will Children's Vaccine Be Available In India?

It is too soon to tell the exact time when the Coronavirus vaccine will be available for children. It was in March that Bharat Biotech announced that they would soon start trials on children.

The results for phase 3 of these vaccine trials were released in April, making it clear that the vaccine was now 78% effective on children. Due to these results, clinical trials of the vaccine on children were given approval, for the first time in India.

As long as everything runs smoothly and goes according to plan, the current estimate is that it will take 4-5 months for the vaccine to be available for children in India.

Conclusion

Children are the future of our world, and therefore the backbone of our society. In order to have a healthy nation, we must have healthy children. This is why it is important for all our children to be immunized.

Vaccines for adults were available even before the start of the second wave. Even though many did try to get vaccinated, several people hesitated. This has cost us so many lives during the second wave. In addition, the mad scramble to get vaccinated once the second wave hit has caused scarcity for those who really needed it.

We should not repeat our mistakes.

Hesitation and panic will get us nowhere. Parents, when the vaccine for children becomes available, make sure you get your children vaccinated, in a calm and orderly manner.