An Israel Hayom report on Sunday said that it’s unclear whether Israeli children, or any children for that matter, will be able to be vaccinated for the coronavirus since none of the companies that expect to produce the vaccine in the near future have tested the vaccine on children.

Israel has reached deals to purchase vaccines produced by Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca and none of those companies have included children under the age of 12 in their clinical trials.

“We’ve seen that no one has [tested anyone] under the age of five – these kids aren’t even in the picture,” Dr. Tzachi Grossman, the head of the Israel Pediatric Association, told Israel Hayom.

“It could be that the reason for this is regulatory guidelines and the fact that the ethical approval required for children is more complicated. But it’s also a reflection of the morbidity rate in children – few children become seriously ill and most of them endure the virus illness relatively easily and that’s why children receive less priority on the vaccine front.”

“No one authorizes vaccinating children based on adult data,” Dr. Grossman concluded.

Dr. Tal Brosh, Epidemic Management Team secretary and director of the Samson Assuta Ashdod University Hospital, said. “In developing medications and vaccines, the accepted [method] is to begin with adults and move on to children, who are considered a more sensitive population.”

“We’ll have to make a decision whether to wait with child vaccinations until there are results from research on children, or decide that in light of the data on adults, we can administer the vaccine to children. We’ll speak to experts and see how other authorities in the US and Europe proceed.”

Meanwhile, Israel’s Advisory Committee on Infectious Diseases and Immunization will be convening for a discussion on how to prioritize various high risk-groups for receiving vaccines. The Israeli Epidemic Management Team has already convened for a discussion on the matter.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)