New data from New York shows that the Pfizer vaccine is less effective in preventing a COVID-19 infection in kids ages 5 to 11, but it's still the only vaccine approved for that age group. So what does this mean for kids' coronavirus risk?
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Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, professor of health and infectious diseases, pediatrics, and epidemiology and population health at Stanford, explained to KCBS Radio's "Ask An Expert" that a vaccinated child's protection against the disease is wearing off much faster than a vaccinated adult’s.
"The study was done on several hundred thousand children between the ages of 5 and 17. What it did was it took different databases and linked them together, so it looked at the immunization records in New York state as well as the hospitalization records and the laboratory records," she said.
The study, conducted by researchers from New York State Department of Health, identified children who were hospitalized for COVID-19 and then traced back to when or if they received the Pfizer vaccination.
"They were able to determine that in December of 2021 children all had very high protection against hospitalization, but in January when omicron took over and presumably their vaccinations were further out, the protection against infection dropped off quite significantly, in some cases no protection at all," Maldonado said.
Protection against hospitalization was still significant for older children, but for younger children it sunk to a mere 48%.
"So there was about half, 50% risk of being hospitalized with COVID-19 if (a child) has been vaccinated compared to not vaccinated," she warned.
Moving forward, the children's COVID-19 vaccination dose may need to be higher or a third vaccination dose may be necessary, Maldonado speculated.
It's not yet clear why the Pfizer vaccine is less effective in children.
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