Currently, pharmaceutical company Pfizer is the only one offering a COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5-11 years. However, in a recent study conducted by researchers in New York, United States, the protection of the Pfizer vaccine decreased against the Omicron variant of the Corona virus.
The efficacy of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine against infection among children aged 5-11 years decreased to 12 percent in late January, compared to mid-December of 68 percent. Meanwhile, for children ages 12 to 17, COVID-19 vaccine protection declined to 51 percent at the end of January, compared to mid-December at 66 percent.
“These results highlight the potential need to study alternative vaccine doses for children and the continued layered protection, including the wearing of masks, to prevent infection and transmission,” said the researchers, in the study, which has not yet been peer reviewed.
Data on the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine in preventing hospitalization decreased dramatically from the results of research in December 2021. At that time, the vaccine was said to be able to prevent 100 percent of cases of treatment for children aged 5 to 11 years and 85 percent for the adolescent group. Reuters, Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine is only 48 percent effective in protecting the young age group from being hospitalized and 73 percent preventing hospitalization in the adolescent group.
However, Dr Paul Offit, a pediatric infectious disease expert at Philadelphia Hospitals, questioned whether the data were strong enough to suggest the vaccine’s efficacy was significantly reduced, especially against severe disease.
“It is not surprising that protection against minor illnesses will be reduced,” said Dr. Offit.
“We know that Omicron is somewhat ‘immune’ to avoid mild disease. The aim of this vaccine is to protect against severe disease, to keep children away from hospitals,” he added.
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