by A recent real-world study led by researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) has revealed that children and adolescents who received the main COVID-19 vaccines were significantly protected against the illness. The study also showed that there were no increased signs of cardiac complications among vaccinated young people compared to those who were not vaccinated. The findings have been published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
The study analyzed data from 250,000 patients, half of whom received at least one dose of the BNT162b2 vaccine, developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. The researchers focused on the periods when the delta and omicron variants became dominant, in mid-2021 and 2022, respectively. The study aimed to provide evidence of the vaccine’s real-world effectiveness beyond controlled settings.
The results showed that vaccinated young people were 98% less likely to be infected with the delta variant compared to their unvaccinated peers. However, the effectiveness of the vaccine declined slightly with the emergence of the omicron variant. Despite this, the vaccine still provided strong protection against infection. Among adolescents, those who were vaccinated were around 86% less likely to be infected compared to their unvaccinated peers, while protection against severe illness and ICU admission was approximately 85% and 91% less likely, respectively.
The study also addressed concerns regarding potential cardiac complications. The researchers found no indication of increased cardiac risks during either variant phase. The study’s first authors emphasized the importance of addressing under-reporting in vaccine status to provide a clearer picture of the vaccine’s effects.
In addition to infection prevention, the researchers are also conducting further work to investigate the direct and indirect impacts of vaccination on outcomes related to long COVID. They believe that longer-term studies are necessary to understand the vaccine’s continued effectiveness in protecting recipients.
Children and adolescents were the last age group to be enrolled in COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials, and while the pandemic has been declared over, the risk of COVID-19 still exists in communities. The researchers highlight the need for more information on the effectiveness of vaccination in children and adolescents during more recent time periods.
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