Do parents know how COVID-19 vaccines for children are researched, developed and tested?

All vaccines go through extensive and rigorous testing and evaluation processes for efficacy, quality and safety, through multiple steps of assessments including pre-clinical assessment and three phases of clinical trials.

The national regulatory authorities review information submitted by the manufacturers on the vaccine, in order to decide whether to authorize the vaccine for use or not.

As the elderly group and adults with underlying medical conditions are high risk groups of COVID-19, the vaccine products were first researched and tested for the adult population. 

After obtaining good performance and safety data in the real world from these groups, the vaccine developers have gradually expanded their target population to the younger age group. Through these stepwise processes, the manufacturers have generated data from the younger population. The national regulatory authorities then reviewed new data and updated the authorization to use the vaccines in young children. More than 60 countries have vaccinated children from 5-11 years old against COVID-19.