Explained: What it takes to run child trials for a Covid-19 vaccine

JAB AT HAND: From encouraging people to volunteer to screening kids and winning their confidence

Anjana Tewari (name changed) is unhappy that she got late by a day for registering her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter for paediatric vaccine trials at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Patna. She says she did have apprehensions about possible adverse reactions during the trial, “but is there no risk in keeping my daughter unvaccinated? My husband and I are both fully vaccinated with Covaxin and we worried about our daughter not having the same level of protection.”

AIIMS Patna was among a dozen sites nationwide that were earmarked for phase 2 and 3 paediatric trials of Covaxin. And among those