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American children could begin getting vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as this spring, said Dr Anthony Fauci on Friday.
The government's top infectious disease expert said it's a needed step to securing widespread immunity to the coronavirus.
'Hopefully by the time we get to the late spring and early summer we will have children being able to be vaccinated,' Dr Fauci said during the White House coronavirus briefing.
Vaccines are not yet approved for children - although Pfizer's is authorized for teenagers 16 and older - and both Pfizer and Moderna are testing their shots in children 12 and up.
Even older adults are having difficulty getting shots at the moment. As of Thursday, only about 1.3 percent of Americans had been fully vaccinated with the required two doses of the currently available vaccines. Fewer than seven percent of Americans have had at least a first dose.
Children represent about one-fourth of the population, and for the U.S. to reach 'herd immunity,' or widespread resistance, about 70 percent to 85 percent of the population must be vaccinated.
That means that every adult in the US, plus a small portion of children, need to be vaccinated, despite the fact that children rarely get severely ill or die of COVID-19 and seem to be only a very minor source of transmission.
But that seems a distant aspiration amid a painfully slow vaccine rollout. Despite President Biden's goal of 1.5 million vaccinations a day, the US is only averaging about 1.26 million a day, according to Bloomberg.
© Provided by Daily MailNo COVID-19 vaccine is approved for children yet, but Moderna and Pfizer are both testing their shots in kids 12 and up to make sure they are safe, as children's immune systems may respond differently to them
That's not even enough to have even the most vulnerable groups protected, and states say they are running out of doses to give, while manufacturers are working flat-out to make more.
Pfizer's vaccine is authorized for children as young as 16, while Moderna's is only green-lit by regulators to give to people 18 or older in the US.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not yet approved vaccines for children, due to insufficient testing data on safety and effectiveness for young people.
But Dr Fauci said data is being gathered now, through a process called 'age de-escalation testing.'
The next step, said Dr Fauci, involves testing in children down to 12 years old, and if that's successful it's followed by another round of testing down to those nine years old.
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Moderna is currently testing its vaccine in children between ages 12 and 17.
Since the initial tests to validate the safety and effectiveness of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines involved tens of thousands of people, the age-related testing on children can be done using smaller groups.
'You don't want to have to...go through an efficacy trial, where you're involving tens of thousands of children,' said Fauci.
'What you can do, is in a much smaller trial, measured in hundreds to a couple of thousands...what we call safety and...immunogenicity.'
That's a term for whether the vaccine successfully triggers an immune system response.
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© Provided by Daily MailFewer than 7 percent of American adults have had their first dose of coronavirus vaccine
'Children tend to not become as severely ill as adults but they can still become ill and some have tragically died,' said Dr Leana Wen, a public health expert and emergency room physician, who supports Fauci's goal.
'Children can also be vectors of transmission, and getting children vaccinated is important as we strive for herd immunity.'
After a frustratingly slow start, the U.S. is now administering about 1 million shots a day to adults, although that pace is still seen as insufficient.
President Joe Biden has talked about 1.5 million shots a day, if it can be done. His administration has set a goal of 100 million shots in its first 100 days.
Two more vaccines from American companies are nearing the stage where the FDA can evaluate them for approval. One from Johnson & Johnson requires only a single shot.
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© Provided by Daily Mail Biden has also set a goal of reopening most schools by the summer, and directed government agencies to work with communities to advance it.
His American Rescue Plan legislation in Congress calls for $50 billion to finance a major expansion of testing, which is seen as necessary for the safe reopening of schools and businesses.
That's because robust testing can detect early outbreaks before they spread through a community and trigger shutdowns.
Testing in the U.S. had a chaotic start, and experts say in many parts of the country it's still subpar.
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