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Utah Vaccine Trials For Children Under 12 Need More Volunteers

As Utah students head back to school, only the few children under 12 who are in the COVID-19 vaccine trial will return with protection from the shot. It is still unknown when the vaccine will be approved for children.Vice president of business development for Velocity Clinical Research Craig Koch says the company is conducting pediatric research of the Moderna vaccine. He says more volunteers are needed for the trials before the vaccine can be approved for those under 12. The hope is to enroll 70-100 children in Utah, but Koch says they’ve enrolled only about half of the needed participants.

 

Koch says it’s understandably difficult to enroll children in studies like this because of their age and parent concerns, but he says there are “rigorous safety measures in place to ensure the safety” of children and adults.

 

Anyone interested in enrolling their children in the Velocity trial can find more information at velocityclinicalresearch.com.

Tyler Hewitt is the web/social media assistant at UPR. He writes stories every day, updates the website and manages the station's Twitter and Facebook pages. Tyler is a senior at Utah State University and is studying public relations, marketing, and psychology. He loves to write, listen to music, play video games, play tennis and hang out with his fiancé and cat, Juno. He is a great plant dad and recently started collecting vinyl records!