Who would offer their kids to be tested on?

[spongebob1000]

Just saw this article and I'm curious to find out what your opinion is. I wouldn't volunteer my 6 year old to be tested on.

www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/oxford-astrazeneca-vaccine-to-be-tested-on-children-as-young-as-six-b919672.html

This has been one of the first pieces of news for many months that has given me any hope.
Ds is 10, clinically vulnerable and has been shielding for most of the year.
Getting him and his sisters vaccinated will enable some semblance of normality for him.
If we lived in the right area, the dds would have been keen to join trials.
Ds would not be able to, as children with medical vulnerabilities are not eligible for the trial.
I am hugely grateful to the children who are volunteering for the trial, which is looking at the immune response in children (safety trial have been done).
It is not the only trial involving children, Pfizer is trialling 12-16 year olds and Israel are considering vaccinating high risk children soon.

I feel a tiny bit of the weight lifting from my shoulders at this news - and have several friends who, like me are starting to have a little hope.

I would if my kids wanted to. I think they should have a say.

Worries me slightly that testing is 6-17 yr olds, how can a 6 year old make an informed choice?
Are participants paid? If so i can imagine some parents volunteering their children to get money..

@Countdowntonothing

I would, if my children agreed.

But surely that would rest on cognitive ability which comes from age? And for me that’s too much responsibility fit a child to take. I just couldn’t risk my child’s future life on best guesses because that’s what it.

Whilst I see the wider benefits of the trial for allowing CEV children to have it at a later date, the ethics of it are slightly questionable. Signing healthy kids as young as 6 up for a trial which has next to no personal benefits seems to be iffy. Of course older teenagers would be able to consent altruistically but there is no way that very young kids would be able to give meaningful consent.

The Oxford Vaccine Group are mostly paediatricians and they have extensive experience arranging and managing clinical trials in various age groups down to very young infants. The ethics of what they are doing will have been very carefully examined and I would expect this trial to be well structured.

@Jellykat

Worries me slightly that testing is 6-17 yr olds, how can a 6 year old make an informed choice? Are participants paid? If so i can imagine some parents volunteering their children to get money..

Please read up on trial design.

This will have been a highly scrutinised, meticulously planned trial with a protocol which would have gone through an ethics board. Of course they won't give out cash or financial incentives that could lead to coercion of children to participate.

Incentives will be age appropriate- maybe vouchers for a popular store, stickers, sometimes kids get scan pictures if appropriate and relevant (i.e, we've given out colourful pictures of brain scans in a neuroimaging trial). Please have some level of trust in the clinicians and scientists who are running this- many of whom are pediatricians who have child public health as their personal interest.

@riveted1

"Please have some level of trust in the clinicians and scientists who are running this"

Sorry but I have to 😂

@spongebob1000

Why is that your response though?

The people behind the trial have dedicated years of their lives to improving child health. I understand skepticism towards the government but find this kind
of attitude bizarre 🤷‍♀️

riveted reason i asked was participants were paid in the initial Oxford trials.. easy to presume it would a similar set up!

I would. I let DD take part in a trial when she was 2.

[quote spongebob1000]@riveted1

"Please have some level of trust in the clinicians and scientists who are running this"

Sorry but I have to 😂[/quote]
I agree with the above poster, I find your response worrying in its total naivety. I have a huge amount of faith in the system as I work within it and have seen a painful amount of red tape and dotting i's/crossing t's. The people involved take it extremely seriously, as they should.

I enrolled DS1 in a vaccine trial when he was 13 months and would happily do so again....

Can’t speak for the OP but the ethics question is interesting. I can absolutely accept the greater good argument for trialling on young children as others may benefit from the vaccine but wonder how they addressed the question that for the individual children who were taking part there seems to be little to no benefit. I don’t doubt that it was considered but it would be interesting to understand their rationale. Perhaps because the risks were judged to be so low that negligible benefit was decided to be worth it.

There’s nothing in this whole world that would induce to me to do something to my children that might have even the slightest detriment to them, for the benefit of the greater good. I do wonder at the mindset of those who would.

Yes, I absolutely would if my child was old enough. It’s not a vaccine they’ve plucked out the air, it’s the AZ currently being given to millions of adults around the world. I trust that the scientists are so confident in its safety given the MASSES of data they now have that they are opening it up to children.

I shake my head at all these saying ‘my children have had all their vaccines’ but no way are they testing anything on mine. You do realise the reason you’d kids have all these vaccines is because of other children trialling them. You could at least acknowledge that fact & not make it sound like those willing to sign up to trials are essentially sending their kids to a life of pain & death 🙄

I sometimes wonder how can you put your baby/ toddler/ your child - under 14 years of age through medical trials.

How can you live with yourself of something happened to your child? How can you take this risk?

As a parent your responsibility is to protect your child. Putting him through unnecessary pain - if there are side effects - is unforgivable.

heAuthorityofJackieWeaver

There’s nothing in this whole world that would induce to me to do something to my children that might have even the slightest detriment to them, for the benefit of the greater good. I do wonder at the mindset of those who would“

My mindset is that if previous generations had not allowed their children to trial vaccines, my children would not be protected from life-threatening illnesses now.

These trials are not a stab in the dark. Stage 3 trials are incredibly safe.

I'll make something clear on here...you put your child through whatever you want but I will not take any risks with my child for ... as you say ..."the greater good"

Period

spongebob1000

I sometimes wonder how can you put your baby/ toddler/ your child - under 14 years of age through medical trials.

How can you live with yourself of something happened to your child? How can you take this risk?

As a parent your responsibility is to protect your child. Putting him through unnecessary pain - if there are side effects - is unforgivable“

SpongeBob: you have already said that your child is up to date with all childhood immunisations. Instead of being aghast at those who came before you and allowed their children to participate in the trials that allowed that to happen, perhaps you should be grateful.

It is of benefit to children though as while the virus might pose little health risk to healthy children, school closures and lockdowns do have a detrimental effect on their lives. Getting children vaccinated will help to drive virus levels down and enable schools to open and stay open. I have every faith that the trials will be safe and I am so glad they are happening.

Absolutely no way

pongebob1000

I'll make something clear on here...you put your child through whatever you want but I will not take any risks with my child for ... as you say ..."the greater good"

Period.

You’re quite happy to reap the benefits, though?

Well...I feel for those kids that had to go through these trials ... mainly orphans that had no parents to look out for them.

If you read how these trials were carried out in history you would be petrified

@spongebob1000 - the reason we have such a healthy & safe society is vaccines. Vaccines trialled on children one way or another. They used to just reduce the adult dose & hope for the best. The idiot that led others to believe MMR was linked to autism has caused almost irradiated measles to become a problem again as so many parents believed him & didn’t vaccinate. Vaccines safe lives. Trials have to be done. In 5 years time, you’ll all be lining up to give your kid a covid vaccine thanks to the parents who trusted science over fearmongering & parent shaming on mumsnet.

I’m staggered people would do this. I don’t even want my kids to have the vaccine until I see the full and longer term data. Same resin I will wait a few years before having it myself.

We simply know know the longer term effects of the Pfizer vaccine for example. Hopefully none but we don’t know for sure.

I don’t agree with testing the vaccine on the very young who cannot consent: it’s morally wrong.