UMass Medical School in Worcester is enrolling teens in a Moderna vaccine trial set to begin in February
Updated Jan 27, 2021;
Moderna’s version of the COVID-19 vaccine has already been authorized for emergency use in individuals 18 and older. UMass Medical School in Worcester is taking steps for the vaccine to receive the same authorization for teens in the United States.
In early February, UMass Medical School will begin enrolling adolescents ages 12 to 17 in clinical trials to test Moderna’s COVID vaccine. It will represent the first tests conducted for a younger population.
Moderna expects to enroll 3,000 adolescents at up to 15 sites nationwide in the trial called TeenCove, UMass Medical School said.
WORCESTER City health experts have pointed out throughout the COVID-19 pandemic that communities of color have been suffering disproportionately.
At the City Council s Public Health and Human Services Committee meeting Tuesday, councilors and officials feared that as the state s vaccination program rolls out, those health inequities will again be playing a role, and could leave vulnerable communities out of the conversation.
Jeanne Shirshac, vice president of public programs for UMass Memorial Health Care, runs the data committee for the city s COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force.
Next week, the state will begin vaccinating residents 75 and older, and soon after that will start vaccinating residents over 65. But Shirshac told the committee Tuesday that according to the data, younger residents in communities of color have been hardest hit by the virus.
Roach makes move from interim to president of UMass Memorial HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital
The Item
Roach will continue to serve as president of UMass Memorial Marlborough Hospital as well.
“Steve has been an invaluable leader within the UMass Memorial Health Care system for the past seven years,” said Robert Paulhus Jr., chairman of the Hospital Board of Trustees. “He brings immense experience in health care to the position and has certainly shown his expertise leading HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital through such challenging times as the coronavirus pandemic and recovering from financial losses over the last two years. His work at Marlborough Hospital since 2013 helped stabilize that organization and he has brought that same tenacity for improvement to HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital. His track record at previous institutions has shown him to be a turnaround specialist.”
UMass Medical School researchers to start trial of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in teens By Susan E.W. Spencer January 26, 2021
UMass Medical School researchers are about to start enrolling adolescents ages 12 through 17 in a clinical trial to test the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine made by Moderna. The vaccine has already been authorized for emergency use in adults 18 years or older by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This is the first it is being tested in a younger population.
Moderna expects to enroll 3,000 adolescents at up to 15 sites nationwide. Enrollment in the trial, called TeenCove, is expected to start at the Medical School in early February. Adolescents and their families can visit the TeenCOVEStudy.com website for more information and to indicate their interest in participating.
To start, it may all depend on how things go in Worcester.
UMass Medical School students – both nursing students and the School of Medicine students they’ve trained to give shots – began administering the first vaccines on Jan. 11 to the first few hundred police officers, firefighters and other first responders in Worcester and six adjacent towns.
Before too long, leaders of the effort will review what worked best and what didn’t in order to gauge how such an effort could be replicated elsewhere in the state.
The program may be tapping into a broad eagerness in the medical community to play a role in helping to bring an eventual end to the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 400,000 Americans.