Can children get the COVID-19 vaccine?

Nipunie S. Rajapakse, M.D., M.P.H., Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Mayo Clinic: The Pfizer vaccine is approved for people over the age of 16 and the Moderna vaccine is approved for use in people over the age of 18. Children were excluded from these clinical trials. And so as of right now they are not eligible to receive vaccination.

We know that children can get infected with COVID-19 and can transmit it to others. Thankfully, they seem to get less sick than adults. And in fact, they can have infection without having any symptoms.

Clinical trials are currently underway to study the safety and efficacy of these vaccines in children. We expect to have some of these results back over the next few months. Once we have those results back, we will be able to use that information to determine when we can roll these vaccines out for children.