BALTIMORE — University of Maryland School of Medicine have started to vaccinate children as part of their COVID-19 vaccine study.
This clinical trial, called KidCOVE, looks at the use of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in children ages 6 months to 11 years old.
James Campbell, MD, MS, Professor of Pediatrics, is the principal investigator at the UMSOM study site, which will assess the safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine in a pediatric population.
The trial is being conducted in partnership with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health, and the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, part of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
UMSOM is one of multiple sites in the U.S. and Canada that will enroll approximately 6,750 children in two phases. Participants will receive two doses 28 days apart. The UMSOM site is expected to enroll 120 children.
The vaccine trial is being conducted by researchers in UMSOM’s Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health (CVD) as part of their NIAID-funded Vaccine and Treatment Evaluation Unit (VTEU) work.
“Children are not small adults. Medical research is very much needed to understand how best to keep them safe from a global pandemic that has killed so many,” Dr. Campbell said. “We hope KidCOVE will provide much awaited information to accomplish just that.”
