Covid vaccines shielded adolescents against life-threatening Covid, not less severe illness --study

In yet another twist to the debate over how best to protect children against the coronavirus, researchers reported on Wednesday that Covid vaccines conferred diminished protection against hospitalization among children 12 and older during the latest Omicron surge.

Vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization held steady in children aged 5 to 11 years, however, and among adolescents ages 12 to 18 years, two doses of the vaccine remained highly protective against critical illness requiring life support.

But effectiveness against hospitalization for less severe illness dropped to just 20 percent among these children. The findings were published in the The New England Journal of Medicine.

The data are broadly consistent with studies showing that, across all age groups, the vaccines lost much of their power against infection with the Omicron variant but still prevented severe illness and death.

While any hospitalization is unnerving, it is reassuring that the vaccines still protected children from the worst outcomes of infection, said Dr. Manish Patel, a researcher at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who led the study.

Among adolescents in the study who were critically ill, 93 percent were unvaccinated, and most had at least one underlying condition, Dr. Patel noted. “I think the big take-home message is that with the simple act of vaccination, you can prevent most critical illness in most children,” he said. ...