Is Pfizer’s Covid vaccine less effective than previously believed in 5- to 11-year-olds?
On Monday, a paper that suggested as much was posted on a server by researchers with the New York State Department of Health; that paper has yet to be peer-reviewed. On top of the vaccine being delayed for children under the age of 5, the news came as a major disappointment to parents. The paper suggested that there has been a rapid decline in protection after vaccination among the youngest cohort of children eligible for vaccination, dropping off more quickly than the declines seen in slightly older children aged 12 to 17.
In their study, researchers analyzed data from 852,384 fully vaccinated children aged 12 to 17 years and 365,502 children aged 5 to 11 years between Dec. 13 and Jan. 31, 2022 — the peak of the omicron surge. The analysis suggested that the vaccine’s effectiveness against hospitalizations declined from 85 to 73 percent for the older children, and from 100 percent to 48 percent for 5- to 11-year-olds. Vaccine effectiveness against infection decreased from 66 percent to 51 percent for older children, and from 68 percent to 12 percent in the younger cohort.
Read more at Salon.