Giving children a second jab can prevent thousands of long Covid cases

Two doses of coronavirus vaccine in children may help prevent thousands of long Covid cases, new studies suggest.

The findings come because children aged 12 to 15 are eligible for a single dose of Pfizer. COVID-19 vaccination. However, it is not yet recommended to give young people a second dose.

In a new study published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, researchers conducted a risk / benefit analysis of two vaccinations for teens between the ages of 12 and 17.

Researchers used historical rates of hospitalization, intensive care support, and death in British children who had Covid-19 to perform the analysis, and examined long Covid estimates.

The study also evaluated the efficacy of the vaccine and the potential risk of jab-related heart inflammation.

The results of the study suggest that the benefits of a second dose to adolescents outweigh the risks, “unless the case rate is persistently low.”

As of September 15, approximately 680 of the 100,000 young people between the ages of 10 and 19 were catching Covid-19 each week.

If this increases to 1,000 cases per week in 16 weeks, it is estimated that two vaccinations of people aged 12 to 17 years can avoid 4,430 hospitalizations and 36 deaths in 16 weeks.

If the number of cases is reduced to only 50 per week, two vaccinations can avoid 70 hospitalizations and two deaths in 16 weeks.

The study states: “The benefits of vaccination for adolescent hospitalization outweigh the risks unless the case rate is persistently very low (30 / 100,000 teenagers / week).

“Given the current high case rates in the UK, our findings support adolescent vaccination against SARS-CoV2.”

The study also suggests that two doses of coronavirus vaccine in adolescents can avoid thousands of potential cases of Covid.

Researchers have made estimates based on a variety of hypothetical coronavirus infection rates, from an estimate that 14% of children have prolonged symptoms after infection to an estimate that 2% of children suffer from persistent symptoms. rice field.

The authors state that vaccination “assuming an incidence of 14%, 4%, and 2%, respectively, can avoid 56,000, 16,000, or 8,000 cases between the ages of 12 and 17 years.”

On Tuesday (September 28), data from a small study in a UK school suggest that more than one in ten secondary school students suffer from ongoing symptoms after a coronavirus infection. bottom.

According to a survey by the National Bureau of Statistics of China (ONS), 12.3% of junior high school students who were previously confirmed to have a Covid-19 infection reported that they had symptoms that lasted more than four weeks after the onset of the infection.

Approximately 9.4% say their ability to carry out their daily activities has declined significantly.

Dr. Deepti Gurdasani, Principal Author of Queen Mary University of London, said:

“While waiting to understand the long-term effects of Covid-19 on children, the precautionary principle advocates protecting all children from exposure to this virus, and vaccination is an important part of that protection. is.”

The authors of the latest study also examined potential complications of heart inflammation among a small number of adolescents who received the vaccine, but the cases were “rare” and “typically mild complications.” I said there is.

The study concluded that: “Our conservative analysis shows that the benefits of vaccination twice for all ages 12-17 are the risks of children involved, both in the current situation and in scenarios where the incidence of cases is significantly lower. It shows that it clearly exceeds.

“The real short-term risk of vaccination of more than 12 million people under the age of 18 vaccinated worldwide is minimal, myocarditis is rare and usually a mild complication. . “

This article was originally posted on our sister site, NationalWorld..