Data Keep Confirming COVID Vaccines’ Effectiveness—in Some Groups Even More Than Others

The effectiveness and value of vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 continue to be confirmed with the publication of each new related study. Even detractors have to acknowledge that reductions in hospitalizations and deaths in the face of new variants speak to the capability of the vaccines to keep people both out of the hospital and alive even if they do get COVID-19. The latest such study published by The Journal of the American Medical Association reveals a few nuances, however. For one, two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were found to be more effective in preventing infection with the Delta variant than the Omicron variant. Further, it appears adolescents gain more protection from vaccination than younger age groups. After administering weekly tests to 1,364 subjects between 5 and 15 years of age, both vaccinated and unvaccinated and regardless of symptoms, the researchers found that two vaccine doses were 31% effective against symptomatic or asymptomatic infection with the Omicron variant for children between ages 5 and 11, but 59% effective in those 12- to 15-years-old. Two doses conferred 87% protection against the Delta variant among adolescents. The authors concluded that “all children and adolescents should receive COVID-19 vaccines as recommended, as they reduce the risk of infection even with the Omicron variant.”