Cambridge, Massachusetts – Moderna is starting to test its vaccine on children between the ages of six months and 12 years in what is being referred to as the KidCOVE study.

Moderna teamed up with the National Institutes of Health to start "age de-escalation" and "dose escalation" studies on Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine to test its effectiveness and safety for those 12 years old and under.

Age de-escalation means that they will start with the oldest participants and work their way down in age as the vaccine proves to be safe.

Dose escalation describes the strategy of starting with a lower dose than the one being administered to adults and increasing the amount only once the initial shot is shown to be safe.

Although Covid-19 has proven to be quite rare in children, having an effective vaccine would help ease the anxiety of parents, students, and teachers as schools aim to re-open fully in the fall.

Having a vaccine for kids could also potentially minimize the likelihood of outbreaks, especially among grade school teachers who would be in proximity to dozens of children every day when schools open for in-person learning again.

Children are definitely not completely immune to the disease, with the New York Times reporting that 217 kids in the US have died from it.

Moderna has been at the forefront of trials for kids, having started testing the vaccine on kids between the ages of 12 and 17 in December 2020, according to Forbes.