UMass Medical School plans to enroll teenagers in a clinical trial of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine starting next month.
The Worcester site is the only one in Massachusetts enrolling in the trial. More than a dozen sites across the country plan to test the vaccine on a total of 3,000 kids aged 12 to 17.
The vaccine is already approved for adults, and Massachusetts residents over the age of 75 will be eligible to receive it beginning next week.
“Children’s responses to vaccines can differ from those in adults,” Dr. Katherine Luzuriaga of the UMass Medical School said in a press release. “The goals of the trial are to evaluate the safety profile of the vaccine, to see whether adolescents make the same level of immune responses that were observed in adults and to see whether the vaccine protects against illness or infection.”
The study subjects will receive the same initial dose as adult recipients receive, as well as the usual second dose 28 days later. A third of study subjects will receive a placebo.
Researchers especially want to enroll participants from racial and ethnic minorities that have been most affected by the virus, the release said.
The researchers are asking people who might be interested in particpating to visit the study's website at TeenCOVEStudy.com.
