Moderna says its low-dose Covid shots work for kids under 6

NEW YORK – Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine works in babies, toddlers and preschoolers, the company announced Wednesday – and if regulators agree it could mean a chance to finally start vaccinating the littlest kids by summer.

Moderna said in the coming weeks it would ask regulators in the U.S. and Europe to authorize two small-dose shots for youngsters under 6.. The company also is seeking to have larger-dose shots cleared for older children and teens in the US.

Early results from the study found that tots developed high levels of virus-fighting antibodies from shots containing a quarter of the dose given to adults — although it was less effective against the super-contagious omicron mutant than prior variants.

“The vaccine provides the same level of protection against Covid in young kids as it does in adults. We think that’s good news,” Dr Stephen Hoge, Moderna’s president, told The Associated Press.

The nation’s 18 million children under 5 are the only age group not yet eligible for vaccination. Competitor Pfizer currently offers kid-sized doses for school-age children and full-strength shots for those 12 and older.

But parents have anxiously awaited protection for younger tots, disappointed by setbacks and confusion over which shots might work and when. Pfizer is testing even smaller doses for children under 5 but had to add a third shot to its study when two didn’t prove strong enough. Those results are expected by early April.

Vaccinating the littlest “has been somewhat of a moving target over the last couple of months,” Dr. Bill Muller of Northwestern University, an investigator in Moderna’s pediatric studies, said in an interview before the company released its findings. “There’s still, I think, a lingering urgency to try to get that done as soon as possible.”

The younger the child, the smaller the dose being tested. Moderna enrolled about 6,900 kids under 6 — including babies as young as 6 months — in a study of the 25-microgramme doses. They developed levels of antibodies just as strong as young adults who get full-strength shots, the company said.

Covid-19 vaccines in general don’t prevent infection with the omicron mutant as well as they fended off earlier variants — although they do still offer strong protection against severe illness.

Moderna’s study in tots was conducted during the omicron surge and found the same trend: While there were no severe illnesses, the vaccine proved just under 44 per cent effective at preventing milder infections in babies up to age 2, and nearly 38 per cent effective in the preschoolers.

But Hoge said high antibody levels still should translate into protection against severe disease in young kids just like they do in adults, “which ultimately is probably the strongest reason for somebody to get vaccinated.”