Ochsner Health has started to enroll five to eleven-year-olds in New Orleans and Shreveport to participate in a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine trial. Infectious Diseases Specialist Dr. Julia Garcia-Diaz says this trial differs from prior ones since the patients will be monitored for 18 months and there’s a 75-percent chance they will get the vaccine instead of a placebo.
“The adults was one to one which means fifty percent got the vaccine and fifty percent got a placebo. This is a two to one which means that sixty-six will get the vaccine,” Garcia-Diaz said.
Participants who get the placebo will get the vaccine after six months.
Health officials say getting children vaccinated is critical to reaching herd immunity since they make up a third of the population. Ochsner Health System Chair of Pediatrics Dr. William Lennarz says an increase in variants has made it more critical for children to get vaccinated.
“Children generally are much much less likely to get critically ill for it to have a serious course of infection but that doesn’t mean none,” Lennarz said.
According to federal and state data, about 300 children have died from complications connected to COVID-19, including eight in Louisiana.
Ochsner expects to enroll 75 patients at their two sites in Shreveport and New Orleans. Lennarz says to better suit the children the potency of the doses has been changed.
“They have titrated the doses down just as we might do with other vaccines so that there are pediatric doses being used,” Lennarz said.
Those interested in participating can visit ochsner.org and schedule their appointment.
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