The Guardian reports that vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation in 5-11 year olds wanes quickly. Bottom line: the smaller doses wear off more quickly.
In the study released on Monday, not yet peer-reviewed, six New York state public health scientists analyzed cases and hospitalization rates from 13 December 2021 to 30 January 2022 among 852,384 fully vaccinated children aged 12 to 17 and 365,502 fully vaccinated children aged five to 11.
Results revealed that vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization during the Omicron variant surge declined from 85% to 73% for children aged 12 to 17.
Among children aged five to 11, effectiveness fell even more significantly, from 100% to 48%.
Vaccine effectiveness against testing positive declined from 66% to 51% among children aged 12 to 17. In the younger group, effectiveness dropped from 68% to 12%.
In the last week of January, vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization among 12-year-olds was 67% – but just 11% for 11-year-olds.
If those results hold up, that would mean looking at a third shot for that cohort, or considering an adult-sized booster for 11-year-olds on turning 12 if it's been a couple months since their second kid-jab.
But the odds that the government here would allow it don't seem high.
So parents who wanted longer-term protection would want to wait until their 11-year-old turns 12, to get the bigger dose.
But the surge is here, and protection now rather than later is important, even though it is likely to be at the expense of longer-term protection.
Would be nice if parents of 11-year-olds could opt for the 12-year-old dose instead, as their second dose.
It would be nice if parents had a choice in deciding if they want their child wearing facial theatre all day in school, and what poor therapeutic shots their children neex based on their immune system and overall health.
ReplyDelete