Pfizer Shot protects children from serious COVID even in Omicron

(AP)-Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine provided strong protection against hospitalization and death for children over the age of five, especially during the Omicron surge that had a major impact on adolescents, said the United States. Health officials reported on Tuesday.

New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are less effective for children aged 5 to 11 years with the vaccine, especially in the prevention of mild infections, the day after the New York Children’s Study. It suggests that there is a possibility. The data raised the question that the child-sized dose given to children under the age of 12 might be too low.

However, the CDC said data from several other states suggest that the problem is omicron, not the age or dose size of the child. Vaccination is generally less effective against the much more contagious Omicron variant than previous versions of the coronavirus, and vaccination between the ages of 5 and 11 begins just weeks before Omicron begins to circulate. it was done.

“As parents of very young children, I think I’ll do everything to keep them away from the emergency department at midnight,” said CDC epidemiologist Ruth Link-Gellez. “The data we have shows that vaccines continue to provide superior protection against more serious consequences.”

Pediatricians say the pre- and post-results may seem confusing, but parents need to understand that shots are the best way to prevent serious illness.

“If you’re vaccinated, you can get a mild infection and you need to learn to live with it,” said Dr. Paul Offit of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

He said the New York study was too small to draw conclusions and could not explain variables such as infectious diseases that were not counted in children tested at home rather than in the clinic. He said the young man admitted to his hospital with severe COVID-19 was unvaccinated and “difficult to see.”

The CDC reported on Tuesday that there were nine COVID-19-related deaths in vaccinated children between the ages of 5 and 17 between April and early January.

The CDC also investigated pediatric hospitalizations in 10 states from April to the end of January last year. This vaccine has proven to be 74% effective for hospitalizations between the ages of 5 and 11. Only two vaccinated children were hospitalized compared to 59 unvaccinated children.

By comparison, the vaccine was 92% to 94% effective for hospitalizations aged 12 to 15 and 16 to 17 years. Most adolescent hospitalizations occurred when the early delta variants prevailed, while most pre-12-year-old hospitalizations occurred during the Omicron wave, which began in early December.

A study on Tuesday also found that the vaccine was 51% effective in preventing visits to emergency and emergency rooms aged 5 to 11 years when Omicron was dominant. This was fairly similar to the efficacy of 45% of 12-15 year olds who received a second dose two months ago.

What about the less serious consequences?

A report released Monday by researchers at the New York State Department of Health analyzed weekly health records from early December to the end of January. The effectiveness of the vaccine against COVID-19 infection decreased from 68% to only 12% due to the height of the Omicron wave. However, among children over the age of 12, the effect was reduced to only 51%.

Surprisingly, the data suggested that 12 years old seemed to be the most protected of all ages-probably urging researchers to ask if the dose should be reviewed. rice field.

Pfizer Shot is the only vaccine available to children in the United States, 5-11 years old Receive one-third of the dose given to everyone over the age of 12. Also, everyone over the age of 12 is encouraged to take booster doses to enhance protection against Omicron.

The latest CDC study did not track infections in the same way, but Link-Gelles said surveillance data from the other 29 states did not suggest a difference between younger and older children. I did.

Unvaccinated children aged 5 to 11 years are 1.3 times more likely to be infected with COVID-19 in January than vaccinated adolescents, according to new CDC data. Unvaccinated individuals between the ages of 12 and 17 were 1.5 times more likely to be infected with COVID-19 than their vaccinated peers that month.

Dr. Richard Besser, pediatrician, president and chief executive officer of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is disappointed with the lack of protection against infection and decides whether young children will work at different doses. He said more research might be needed to do this. I was not involved in new research.

Pfizer is currently testing the booster effect for ages 5-11.

But on the other hand, “We know that these vaccines are safe, but we know they reduce the risk of hospitalization,” Besser emphasized.

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