The omicron variant caused a record-breaking number of COVID infections during the early part of the year, and kids were not exempt. Children were hospitalized at a higher rate during the omicron wave than during the peak of the delta wave, but a new study shows that vaccines played an important role in preventing the surge from being even more severe.
The report, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, states that vaccination reduced the risk of omicron-associated hospitalization by two thirds among children ages 5 to 11. Researchers analyzed case data from 1,185 kids who contracted COVID, as well as 1,627 kids in a control group. While vaccines were less effective at preventing transmission of the omicron variant, children who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were far less likely to experience critical illness. Of those who became critically ill, 90% were unvaccinated.
Overall, 88% of the COVID-positive kids included in the study were unvaccinated, and 25% of those kids experienced severe symptoms that required life support measures such as intubation or mechanical ventilation. Researchers say the findings provide “strong evidence for the benefits of vaccination in preventing the most severe forms of disease related to the delta and omicron variants in children and adolescents.”
The findings are particularly relevant as parents of children under 5 continue to wait on a vaccine to be approved for their kids. Both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have vaccines for the youngest kids in development. Moderna recently announced the successful results of their vaccine trials for children ages 6 months to 6 years, as well as plans to submit the results to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use authorization. Pfizer-BioNTech expects the results of the most recent trials to be available this month.
During the omicron wave, children ages 0-4 accounted for the largest increase in pediatric hospitalizations, with about 5 times as many kids being hospitalized during the omicron period as compared to the delta period. If children in the youngest age group had access to a vaccine, the data from The New England Journal of Medicine suggests it’s possible some hospitalizations could have been prevented.
“The hospitalization rate for children 4 and younger was 5X as high during the omicron wave than for delta,” writes New York City health commissioner and epidemiologist Dr. Ashwin Vasan on Twitter. “Children can and do get severely ill from COVID. That’s why it’s so important that everyone who can get vaccinated is vaccinated.”
Currently, the U.S. is reporting over 30,000 new COVID cases per day, and there are concerns that an omicron subvariant may cause a new wave of infections. On social media, some parents of children under 5 have expressed dismay that there’s still no vaccine available for their kids, despite the mounting evidence that vaccination provides substantial protection against the virus’s most severe outcomes.
“Last year this week I got my second COVID vaccine dose. Now, one year, later my high risk child who I got vaccinated to protect still hasn’t even had one dose,” one parent writes. “FDA and CDC, quit ignoring families like mine who want to protect our children and authorize vaccines for [kids] under 5!”
“What do we want? Vaccines for kids under 5,” another person adds. “When do we want them? A year ago. 6 months ago. Yesterday. But we’ll take them now.”
Not all parents are relying on vaccines. To date, only 28% of children ages 5-11 and 58% of kids ages 12-17 have gotten two doses of the available COVID vaccine. Additionally, vaccine hesitancy is still common among parents of all age groups. In one study published in October 2021, less than half of parents said they were likely to get their child vaccinated against the virus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) encourages COVID vaccines for all kids ages 5 and up. Not only have vaccines been proven safe and effective for this age group, but as this latest study shows, they could play a major role in protecting kids from severe illness as new variants continue to be discovered.
