Pfizer Covid vaccine was just 12% effective against omicron in kids 5 to 11, study finds

[WorthyBot]

Pfizer and BioNTech’s two-dose Covid vaccine provided very little protection for children aged 5 to 11 during the wave of omicron infection in New York, according to a study published Monday.

The New York State Department of Health found that the effectiveness of Pfizer’s vaccine against Covid infection plummeted from 68% to 12% for kids in that age group during the omicron surge from Dec. 13 through Jan 24. Protection against hospitalization dropped from 100% to 48% during the same period. Source: CNBC

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[missmuffet]

Then why put them at risk?

[teddyv]

Because risks from Delta and other earlier variants were greater?

[one.opinion]

A 48% reduction in hospitalization is still a very good outcome. As the article explains, the reduced dosage delivered in n this age group is likely responsible. It is possible that fine tuning is still needed.

[teddyv]

1 minute ago, Heaven_Bound said:

So, if we go by what we know, the early Variants were harmful to Children, and possibly the later Variants were not, why vaccinate them if we are past the most harmful stages?   It seems unnecessary to vaccinate if later variants are less harmful.   I know, this is hindsight which is 20/20.   But it's possible we put children at risk by giving the vaccine when it's possible the Variants were no longer a threat to them.   Obviously, there's two ways to view this.

Of course there is a risk analysis. Generally speaking, the greater the population that is vaccinated, the far less the incidence of transmission.

The earlier variants are still out there as well.

[just_abc]

23 minutes ago, Heaven_Bound said:

I understand your concern and agree the older variants are somewhere and did not just vanish.   But if newer variants continue and children are at less risk, maybe we don't vaccinate them?

hi.. your post was not directed at me.. but I was just wondering something and hope it is ok for me to post here..? 

 

I was wondering.. what if an even newer variant suddenly comes along that turns out to be more deadly.. even to children.. 

I am guessing that there would then be a rush to vaccinate children.. to protect them..  But it would take time to vaccinate everyone.. and vaccines also take time to work  (For example two doses might be needed.. at least several weeks apart etc.. before one is considered fully vaccinated..).. 

In the meantime the new variant might already be wrecking havoc perhaps?

So I am wondering.. if perhaps one potential benefit of vaccinating the children..  might be to possibly give them some protection from future variants that could possibly be more deadly?  I dunno.

Just wondering.

Sorry for interrupting convo.

And Thanks.

 

Edited May 22, 2022 by just_abc

[just_abc]

1 hour ago, Heaven_Bound said:

Does Vaccination + Boosters really working?   

Vaccine/s helped a lot in my country last year.  At least for adults.  (Children vaccinations were mostly started later than adults.  So I dont know much about the effectiveness yet.  But for adults it helped my country a lot.. )

Earlier on my country initially had a lot of difficulty getting sufficient amount of vaccines for the whole population.. because there was a shortage of vaccines around the world.. especially of the more effective ones such as the Pfizer vaccine etc..

So many people in my country were not vaccinated yet when a bad covid surge hit my country (possibly fuelled in part by the delta variant?  )  

It was a terrifying time for my country.. because hospitals were becomming overwhelmed with patients.. In some /many hospitals..  ICU's were near.. at.. or possibly even over 100 percent capacity)..   

The number of cases .. and deaths.. just skyrocketed ..

And it looked like my country was heading in the direction of what had happened in India.. 

We came so close.. too close..

Thankfully the authorities got ahold of more vaccine supplies..  A mass vaccination campaign started.  Places such as indoor stadiums/auditoriums etc were turned into mass vaccination centres.  It was a race against the virus to innoculate the population..

Finally after more of the adult population was vaccinated.. finally the number of cases and deaths fell..

It has not reached zero though unfortunately.  And there was another surge with omicron variant..  But at least the numbers were more manageble for hospitals etc..  And the ICU's are still at manageble levels today I think.

So um yeah.. based on the experience of my country.. I think Covid vaccines helped..

Anyways.. Just my thoughts.  Thanks.

( sorry for long post!  )

Edited May 22, 2022 by just_abc

[one.opinion]

26 minutes ago, just_abc said:

Vaccine/s helped a lot in my country last year.

The vaccines helped a lot in the US, as well (although many people here still don't understand that). The protection from infection was significantly lower against the omicron strain than earlier strains, but protection from serious disease was still significantly lowered. Additionally, research data showed that booster doses significantly increased antibody diversity, which helped in the neutralization of omicron, even though the spike protein - and the specific receptor binding domain - had changed a fair amount in amino acid sequence.

People looking at the wrong data were and are convinced that the vaccinations really weren't helping that much.