Kaiser Permanente Starts Vaccine Trails On Kids 5 - 11

ALAMEDA COUNTY, CA — Do you have Kaiser Permanente insurance?

Kaiser announced Tuesday that it is expanding COVID-19 vaccine trials to include children ages 5-11 in Oakland.

Kaiser will enroll roughly 75 children in the 5-11 age range at three different sites in California.

Kaiser's Vaccine Study Center and Division of Research, both based in Oakland, are conducting the trial with Pfizer and BioNTech, which co-developed the vaccine that will be used in the trial.

The Pfizer vaccine is currently the only COVID-19 vaccine approved for minors.

Roughly 4,600 children are participating in trials across the country to determine the vaccine's safety and efficacy in children under 12.

"There's a lot of vigorous interest right now in terms of availability and there's limited availability" for the study, said Vaccine Study Center Director Dr. Nicky Klein.

"It may be around the start of school," she said. "(That's) probably the best-case scenario, but I think that's still up in the air."

Kaiser's Vaccine Study Center also participated in the clinical trials of the Pfizer vaccine both in adults and children ages 12-17.

In the coming weeks, trials are also likely to open for children under age 5, Klein said, but for now details are still being worked out. Eventually, she said, medical experts intend to recommend that all children receive the vaccine once it is available to them.

Bay City News contributed to this story