As countries gear up to vaccinate citizens, Covid-19 jabs for children are still in their last stages before wider approvals and rollouts. With a looming fear of the third wave, more parents are consenting to trials — once a difficult task — for their children.
Centres conducting trials for children's Covid-19 vaccines, including Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, Biological E’s Corbevax and Serum Institute of India’s Covovax, found that unlike usual, parents were keener on having their children enrolled for these vaccine trials than others.
“It is very difficult to convince parents to admit their child under a trial. If we are able to convince the father, the mother may not agree and if the mother agrees, the father may not agree. If both agree, sometimes, grandparents may disagree,” Dr Venkat Rao, principal investigator of Odisha-based Institute of Medical Sciences, a Covaxin trial site, told CNN-News18.
“Especially, after noticing the turbulence caused by the second wave, parents wanted to save their children from the forecasted third wave predicted to impact children more. This probably made the recruitment for paediatric trials easier,” Dr Sanjay Rai professor at Centre for Community Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and principal investigator for running Covaxin’s trial on adults and children said, adding that his site received at least 10 times more applications than for any other trial registered for children.
Generally, refusal rates for paedeatric trials are high. Several doctors conducting Covid-19 vaccine trials for children told the publication that parents usually cold feet as soon as doctors begin telling them about insurance and risks. Some parents even resort to abusing the doctors when the clause on 'in the event of death' is remotely bought up. However, coronavirus jab trials received a much more positive response. In addition, drawing blood, constant tests and monitoring with trials involving children is another major challenge.
“The top reason for parents giving consent to admitting their child under trial, especially in scenarios such as the pandemic, is to gain early access to vaccines,” Dr Rai told the publication.
“The only difference was that the adults who came for Covaxin’s trial were excited but in children’s trial, parents were more nervous due to the third wave panic,” Dr Pandey, principal investigator at ESIC Medical College and Hospital, Faridabad, which conducted trials for Covaxin and Corbevax for children, said. He also added that in many of these enrolments, he found that the parents had taken Covaxin shots and wanted the same for their children.
Contribution to a noble cause, free access to vaccines, free-of-cost medical tests and expensive insurance covers were among other reasons that made more parents come forward for these trials. Doctors also pointed out that reimbursements related to these vaccine trials led more families, even from economically weaker sections, to enrol for these trials.
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