Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine offers children of ages 5 and above strong protection against severe illness, less chances of hospitalisation and death even during the surge of Omicron cases, even though it impacted youngsters severely, US health officials reported on Tuesday. New data from the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) come after a study of New York children suggested the Pfizer vaccine may not be as effective in 5 to 11-year-olds as compared to older kids -- especially in cases of preventing milder infections. That data raised the question if doses of kids is too low.

But the CDC noted that data from many other states suggests the issue is not age or dose size — it's Omicron. Vaccination usually stands less effective against the highly contagious Omicron and vaccinations for 5 to 11-year-olds was started just weeks before Omicron outbreak.

"As a parent of a very young child, I think I would do everything to keep them out of the emergency department in the middle of the night," said CDC epidemiologist Ruth Link-Gelles. "What we see from the data that we have is that the vaccine continues to provide good protection against more severe outcomes."

Pediatricians say that parents need to understand that vaccines are still the best possible way to prevent serious illness. "If you're vaccinated, you may get a mild infection and we're just going to have to learn to live with that," said Dr. Paul Offit of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He added that New York study was very small to come to any conclusions and also cannot account for variables like infections going uncounted in children who are tested at home.

The CDC reported on Tuesday that between April and early January there were Covid -19 related nine deaths who were the vaccinated children ages 5 to 17, as compared to 121 deaths reported among unvaccinated children of that age.

CDC also examined pediatric hospitalizations in 10 states from April last year to the end of January. The vaccination proved 74 per cent effective in preventing hospitalization in 5 to 11 year old. Only two vaccinated children were reported to be hospitalized as compared to 59 unvaccinated children.

Furthermore, the vaccination was 92 per cent to 94 per cent effective against hospitalization in age groups 12 to 15-year-olds and 16 to 17-year-olds. Most of the hospitalizations in these age groups were reported during time when delta variant was dominant. Also, most of the hospitalizations of less than 12 years old occurred during the Omicron wave, that had started in early December.

Tuesday's study noted that when Omicron was predominant, the vaccine was 51 per cent effective in preventing emergency room visits in cases of 5 to 11-year-olds.

A report was released on Monday from researchers with New York's state health department based on analyzed health records week-by-week from early December till end of January. Vaccine effectiveness against any Covid-19 infection dropped from 68 per cent to 12 per cent by the peak of Omicron's wave. But among 12 years and older, that effectiveness dropped to 51 per cent.

The Pfizer shots are the only vaccine available to children in US, and 5 to 11 years old receive one-third the amount of vaccine dose that is given to others. Furthermore, 12 and older are urged to get a booster dose to boost protection against Omicron.

The CDC's latest study did not track infections similarly, but Link-Gelles said data from 29 other states did not suggest a difference between the younger and older children. “Unvaccinated 5 to 11-year-olds were 1.3 times more likely to get Covid-19 in January -- at the height of the Omicron surge -- than vaccinated youngsters, according to new CDC data. For 12 to 17-year-olds, the unvaccinated were 1.5 times more likely to get COVID-19 than their vaccinated peers that month.”

“It's disappointing that protection against infection isn't higher, and it may take more research to tell if younger children might fare better with a different dose,” said Dr. Richard Besser, a pediatrician and president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, who isn’t involved with the new studies.

Pfizer is currently testing a booster dose for 5 to 11-year-old children.But meanwhile, "we do know that these vaccines are safe, we do know they reduce the risk of hospitalization," Besser stressed.

Source: Khaleej Times

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