Triangle 12-year-old participating in COVID-19 vaccine trial

Dr. Richard Chung says the health and wellbeing of children is of the utmost importance, especially when it comes to his two sons. His oldest son, Caleb, wanted to do more than just quarantine at home during the pandemic, so he volunteered to be a part of Duke’s trial.

Duke is testing the Pfizer vaccine on children between 12 and 15 years old.

“I will say, I think there are 2,000 kids in the Pfizer group at Duke, and so, that’s a lot of young people who are doing something great on behalf of all of us," said Chung. "In fact, [it's] something we as adults couldn’t do ourselves, right? Literally, a 12-year-old is doing something a 22-year-old or 32-year-old could not do, which is to make this trial work.”

Chung said Caleb received his first dose in December and second in January. He added Caleb was tired and had some headaches shortly after, but is doing great.

Right now, Caleb doesn’t know if he’s received the real vaccine or a placebo.

"My understanding is that kids are about a quarter of our population. So, they're pretty much in every household, in some places going to school and out in the community. So, we need to cover them and get immune so that not only are they protected, but all of us can be as well," said Chung.

Caleb said he's just glad to be a part of something bigger than himself.

Chung said he believes the next trial Duke plans to conduct with Pfizer will involve 5- to 11-year-old children, and that research is expected to begin in the next few months.