{"id":65334,"date":"2022-04-12T21:36:13","date_gmt":"2022-04-12T21:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/?p=65334"},"modified":"2022-04-12T21:36:13","modified_gmt":"2022-04-12T21:36:13","slug":"covid-vaccine-reduced-child-hospitalizations-omicron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.care.com\/c\/covid-vaccine-reduced-child-hospitalizations-omicron\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID vaccine reduced child hospitalizations during omicron, new study shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

The omicron variant caused a record-breaking number of COVID infections<\/a> during the early part of the year, and kids were not exempt. Children were hospitalized<\/a> 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.<\/p>

The report, published in The New England Journal of Medicine<\/a>, 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.<\/p>

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.”<\/p>

The findings are particularly relevant as parents of children under 5 continue to wait on a vaccine<\/a> to be approved for their kids. Both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna have vaccines for the youngest kids in development. Moderna<\/a> 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<\/a> to be available this month.<\/p>

During the omicron wave, children ages 0-4 accounted for the largest increase in pediatric hospitalizations<\/a>, 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.<\/p>

“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.” <\/p>

New from @CDCMMWR<\/a>: The hospitalization rate for children 4 and younger was 5X as high during the omicron wave than for delta. Children can and do get severely ill from COVID. That’s why it’s so important that everyone who can get vaccinated is vaccinated. https:\/\/t.co\/fXqlS0XD3P<\/a><\/p>— Commissioner Ashwin Vasan, MD, PhD (@NYCHealthCommr) March 17, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote>