CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A local medical service has begun COVID-19 vaccination trials for kids.
Crossroads Clinical Research is testing the same Moderna vaccine used for adults on kids ages 12-17 years old.
The facility has enrolled 102 children and is looking for tests of 200 more kids.
For each visit, the participant is compensated $100 and the study ends when they meet 3,000 patients nationwide.
“He was hoping to do something to help our community to move forward from this pandemic,” said one local parent of a participant for the clinical trial.
Crossroads officials say that their efforts are aimed at boosting safety for all consumers when they eventually take their vaccines.
“We are required by the FDA to have a clinical research trial on it to make sure that the effects on children are the same as the adults," said Jerry Plemons, site director at Crossroads Clinical Research. "As far as there are no side effects, it works as well."
Plemons said some of the kids participating in the clinical research trial will get the modern vaccine while others will receive a placebo to see how well the vaccine works.
“As the kids who get the vaccine shouldn’t catch COVID, the ones that get the placebo are at risk for it," Plemons said. "So they compare how many caught it with the placebo versus how many with the medication and they see how well it does." s.
A parent of one participant for the clinical research trial, who asked not to be identified, said she had an easy discussion with her child about the clinical research trial and their willingness to take part.
Because it is a clinical research trial, she said she understands if the results show her child received the placebo, they will still get him vaccinated.
“The actual study was explained to us to be concluded in time for us to know whether or not he received the placebo or the actual vaccination,” said the parent.
Plemons said kids want to visit their grandparents and should get the vaccine since there are new variants and mutations of the virus.
“By getting your kids vaccinated that get the overall amount of virus down and it means we are one step closer to having the world back that we had a year ago before all of this started,” he said.
Plemons said in about a month his facility will begin trials for ages 1 through 11 years old.
For more information about signing up your kid for the clinical research trials visit their websitehere.
