“He’s like a six-year-old in a 90-year-old’s body,” says Chris Ward of his son Thomas, who first fell ill in February 2020 with a fever, breathlessness and aches all over his body.
Thomas was assessed at A&E where the family was asked if they’d been to Italy – they hadn’t. They were sent home with instructions that it was a viral infection and Thomas, then five, needed to rest.
Flash forward a year and Thomas is still suffering – tests have since revealed he has Covid-19 antibodies. Every two or three weeks, his temperature soars. His glands are constantly enlarged and his body aches most days. Ward recently caught him walking up the stairs like a crab because of the pain.
Posted : 2021-02-14 19:51
Updated : 2021-02-14 21:18
AstraZeneca vaccines ready to be used at the Wellcome Center in Ilford, east London, Feb. 5, 2021. AP
Britain plan to test the the Oxford/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in children as young as 6 this month, the university announced Saturday.
Researchers will test the efficacy of the vaccine through a clinical trial of 300 volunteers, ages 6 to 17, to determine if it produces a strong immune response, The Guardian reported. Up to 240 children will receive the vaccine in the trial this month and others will receive a control meningitis shot.
The University of Oxford said while other vaccines have begun testing teenagers, theirs was the first COVID-19 trial in the age group, 6-17.
The clinical trial involving 300 child volunteers will assess whether the jab - known as the the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine - will produce a strong immune response.